I know that she meant well. When Anthony went to a city office this week a helpful clerk suggested that he send a copy of a personal check by email. No wonder there are so many scams lately. It is a marvel that anybody commits old-fashioned robbery or burglary when many of us make it easy to steal money with little risk. After all, there is always the possibility that a mugger’s victim will fight back. Not so with cybercrime.
Nobody should ever send personal information via unsecured email. A check has much of the information that a criminal needs when breaking into someone’s accounts. While we can’t physically fight back against cybercriminals, no matter how satisfying that fantasy might be, we can take measures to thwart them.
· Many people use unsecured Wi-Fi while traveling. Believe me, malfaiteurs can spot an American from a mile away. If you have to use public Wi-Fi, make sure that you are using a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
· Do not open suspicious emails or text messages and never reply. I don’t know how, but every time that I drive on a toll road I receive texts from criminals asking me to log in and pay my tolls. A number of clients have fallen for this scheme.
· Watch out for public charging stations. The lightning connectors on many iPhones also serve as a data connection and your phone can be paired in what is known as “juice-jacking.” It can then be accessed wirelessly and your personal information stolen.
· We will never ask clients to wire funds to us, so be alerted to spoofing schemes from someone who may have hacked your phone and who has access to your address book. Any urgent request for money will never be from us. You wouldn’t want a financial planner with financial problems.
· We cannot and will not take instructions via email. Not only is it against the rules, but spoofing schemes are so commonplace that we would be demonstrating a reckless disregard for our clients were we not to make certain that requests are valid.
· Lastly, make every effort to use multi-factor authentication when accessing accounts on the internet.
Whenever you are in doubt, please call us. We are here to help you.