Page 21 - Seniors Today -April20
P. 21

that the internet is a safe place where you
         can’t fall for all types of online scams, but
         it’s always good to do a “reality check”. We
         can become an easy target for malicious
         actors who want to steal our most valuable
         personal data. Economic crime is appearing
         to be one of the most problematic issues-both
         in India and worldwide. Remember, the scale
         of Economic crimes at the corporate level
         and individual level is hugely different. With
         Fraud gaining momentum and becoming a
         global threat, it is increasingly catching the    Don’t give cold callers the benefit of the doubt – trust no one
         eyes of regulators. Given its scale and cross-      Let me tell you, scammers are inventive
         border implications, it is not surprising that     and they keep coming up with new ways
         enforcement of fraud is a global priority.         to con people not just out of their money
         Still, the silver lining is that the regulators    but also play with their emotions. You can
         are cooperating (inter-country) to prosecute       safeguard yourself by being aware of the
         fraud perpetrators. Through this brief             most common scams in practice. Some of
         article, I am attempting to share a few pieces     them are easy to spot, while others are so
         of the jigsaw puzzle that may help us in           sneaky you may not even realise until you
         understanding this complex web of scams            are scammed. Remember one cardinal rule
         and mitigate the risks associated with it.         to stay protected, if it sounds too good to be
          Data breaches are exposing the crucial            true; it probably is a scam! Almost everyone
         set of pieces of information to fraudsters.        will be the target of fraud at some time. You
         Once stolen, this information can be used in       may have already been scammed. You can
         facilitating fraudulent activities. As cyber       dodge these scammers by being aware of the
         criminals see more opportunities to have           most common scams.
         a windfall in these deals, they see every           Let’s start with the type of scams prevailing
         reason to stay invested! We are facing the         in the world with some sophisticated
         ‘perfect storm’ of risk. Scams aren’t as rare      engagement methods the cybercriminals
         as you might think. You must know how              adopt with the victims. Of course, this is not
         to prevent and deal with Scams if they             an exhaustive list, but yes, for sure, it would
         come your way. Hence, we are simply NOT            give you a good idea that we usually come
         winning this game! Fraud is like a natural         across in our everyday lives:
         disaster: it is so intrinsic to the nature of the   1. Stealing your e-mail password: This is
         individuals that are hard to anticipate by         the most common way of taking data in the
         definition. It happens to be one of the biggest    cybercrime space. The fraudster customises
         threats of all times that we face in today’s       the idea to steal e-mail credentials that
         fast-paced world. As the risk landscape is         bypass any authentication security protocol
         evolving almost on daily basis-the bad guys        as it doesn’t rely on any easy-to-spot
         (perpetrators) are trying to stay ahead of the     phishing methods. Here’s what one needs to
         curve and take full advantage of people’s          know to stay ahead of the e-mail password-
         ignorance and negligence.                          stealing Scam curve.


        SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #10 | APRIL 2020                                                              21
   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26