Oh, Online Safety...?
I recently had one of those close encounters of the third kind with a phishing scam: I got a text from 'Apple' telling me about some ChatGPT subscription that had costed me $400. There was only one little detail: I don’t use ChatGPT. So I immediately freaked out and texted Huntley, who knows about these things. And then I called apple.
No, I did not click the link they sent me (it was a text) or called the number they gave me (fuck no). I went on my Apple account, contacted tech support (a live agent, fuck the chatbot) and confirmed it had not been charged to my account.
This time I reacted the way they have trained us at work to act: do NOT click anywhere in the email/text message and don't give any information to whomever sends the message. How did I learn to do this? Easy: last year I clicked on a link from the 'Post Office' and started writing my credit card number. Did not finish, but I had to destroy that card and then redo a lot of stuff I had connected to it.
So go ahead, take a look at what Allison has to say. It's very useful. Because one never knows…
XOXO
I click nothing and give no information out to anyone anywhere anytime ever!
ReplyDeleteI constantly get texts about how I have run toll booths and my tickets are mounting up and to pay them click here ... trouble is, as far as I know, there is not one toll booth, or toll road, in South Carolina!
xoxo
Logic would tell you to do that.
DeleteAnd I think it's easier to monitor on a desktop. The problem is, when it's on the phone, it becomes trickier. They also aim for commonality: I would freak out if I got any toll road alert because there ARE toll roads in Illinois...
XOXO
Big says,
ReplyDeleteOh, the scams are everywhere. It's simply amazing. I had one that claimed to be my bank...and I ****almost**** gave them my SSN. Stopped short and called the bank direct. Whew.... These days, there is no such thing as being "too careful."
XOXO
I know right????
DeleteThey give us training on how to spot phishing and still...
Every day is more difficult to avoid them.
XOXO
HuntleyBiGuy:
ReplyDeleteI’m waiting for a huge magnetic pulse to take out everything, and we start from scratch, hopefully learning from our mistakes. Who am I kidding, we never learn. 🙄
XOXO 👨🏼❤️💋👨🏽
We never learn.
DeleteWith everything being 'in the cloud' one day we'll be absolutely fucked when the Israeli hackers or the Russian hackers take over the web.
XOXO
It's a scary world out there sometimes. Glad you outfoxed the scammers!
ReplyDeleteI barely did!
DeleteIt was so REAL. Only thing is, I do not have a credit card with Apple. But think about it: the idea of four hundred dollars applied to your account would wake anybody up.
XOXO
I assume everything is a scam. I don't respond to any email asking for money
ReplyDeleteSame.
DeleteHindsight is 20/20. The problem is that it's not the African Prince anymore. Or the Lotto winner sharing his wealth. Every time is more insidious and less likely to be spotted.
XOXO
It’s unsettling how often these messages seem legitimate. I err on the side of caution and never click or reply.
ReplyDeleteThey are harder and harder to spot.
DeleteAnd to think there are whole farms of bots doing this on a daily basis...
XOXO
I get those. Rather than click, I go to the website to see if I have any notifications. This is how I check to see if they're legit. Not one of them has been, so they get blocked and reported.
ReplyDeleteThat's my current strategy.
ReplyDeleteI think they're trying to tire us with the barrage of fuckery but hey....
XOXO