Scamming can dramatically increase during the holiday season with online fraud attempts spiking during Thanksgiving weekend. According to the Pew Research Center, 73% of adults have experienced a scam attempt with $16.6 billion in losses in 2024 alone. Older adults are often targeted and AI is adding a new dimension to the attacks. There are steps you can take to protect yourself:
1. Don’t be ashamed if you get scammed! The attackers are very skilled and know how to use fear to manipulate their victims. Being scammed is never your fault.
2. Hang up on suspicious or unsolicited calls. Do not open attachments in emails that you don’t recognize. If someone calls you from a number that you do not recognize, let it go to voicemail. If they leave a legitimate voicemail, you can call them back. You can also block any number that seems suspicious.
3. Do not rush – scammers are trying to panic you. Hang up or close the email and call a friend or family member and share what happened.
4. AI can mimic anyone’s voice. Be very wary of false distress calls. A friend of mine received a call from “the police”. The fake cop said his daughter had hit another car, injuring a pregnant woman. My friend asked to speak to his daughter and someone sounding like her got on the phone asking him to pay bail. He was about to do it when he decided to call his daughter on her cell phone. She was at home and had no idea what he was talking about.
5. If someone claims to be calling from your bank, hang up and call the number on the back of your bank card or go to the bank.
6. Go paperless when you can and shred any pre-approved credit offers, insurance forms, bank or credit card statements, etc, before discarding them.
7. Do not use the same password for every account. You can use your comuputer generated password.
8. Government agencies do not call – do not give any personal information over the phone, just hang up.
9. There are scammers who can pop up on your computer telling you that your computer has been infected and will claim that they are from Microsoft or Apple and that you need to pay them and give them remote access to fix the problem. You do not – these companies never send pop-up warnings. Disconnect from the Internet. When you log in again, clear your browser history. If this happens, call Paula or a family member if you need help with these steps.
10. If you get an email invitation to a party from someone you haven’t heard from in a while, do not click on the invite, call your friend instead, they have likely been hacked.
