How to avoid scams
MISSOURI (kbsi) -There seems to be a scam around every corner lately.
Warrant scams through multiple police departments, solar energy scams, SAT scams, grocery store scams and many more.
Sydney Waters, with the Better Business Bureau gives insight on how you can protect yourself against getting scammed.
”A way to prevent you from getting scammed is to not open up anything unsolicited, so any unsolicited links, emails. Anything that comes to your phone that you weren’t expecting just expect them to be associated with some sort of scam.”
Waters says if you do open up one of these links it can open your device to malware which can open you up to identify theft. Another common way scammers reach out is by phone calls. Many of these calls can seem very real.
According to the Federal Trade Commission consumers lost a total of 8.8 billion dollars to scams in 2022 with the elderly being a main target of these scams.
“If you aren’t expecting these phone calls then go head and hangup and leave a voicemail and call the number back that you know is correct with spoofing apps phone numbers can actually look like another phone number so it can be a very scary thing and many time with those apps they’re just trying to capture your personal information for identify theft” says Waters.
Waters explains what you should do if you suspect you’re a victim of a scam call.
“With the robocalls if you hear a click and there’s a delay just hangup right away. With generative AI scammers can take your voice and record it for three seconds and make an entire voicemail to send to a friend or loved one requesting help for money in the tone of your voice.”
The Better Business Bureau says love scams have also become a big problem. They strongly urge that people don’t send money to people they’ve only met online or through a dating app.
Robin Cole helped write a book on cyber security, and he shares tips on dealing with scams.
“The number one thing that a person can do when they receive an unexpected message is to ask themselves how urgent does this sound, how am I reacting to it. If there is s tone of urgency and an emotional reaction caused by it that’s the first time to stop and backup and say I’m going to calm down and not over reactive.”
Cole says to stay calm and think about the situation through before responding to these types of calls.
“To identify the likelihood of a scam, call that sense of urgency and emotion reacting to it are tremendous things that they do to stimulate you to be impulsive and make a mistake.”
To find out about specific scams or to report a scam you can do so through the better business bureau page online.
