Tips for Avoiding Scams This Season.
Scams take place throughout the year but with the busy holiday season approaching it’s easier for red flags to slip through the cracks without you noticing. Curtis Insurance would like to provide the community with some pro-tips of things to look out for to avoid scams this winter.
There is a large variety of scams out there that are constantly evolving alongside technology. While listing all of the known scams would be near impossible, what can be done though is learning common red flags so that you can spot them.
Phone Calls
In a previous blog post, we discussed how Medicare, Social Security, and the IRS will never call you, with the exception being you pre-arranging the call. These entities use the USPS to mail letters. When you receive a call ask yourself these questions:
Is this entity allowed to call my phone unprompted?
Would this entity or business have my phone number on file?
Is this entity calling for the purpose of gathering my information?
After asking yourself these questions, if you have any doubts, hang up and look up the entity’s phone number. Look for their official website for accurate information and do not rely on a search engine's “AI overview”. Another common tactic for scammers is “spoofing” which is a process of making their telephone area code appear as if it’s from another area when in actuality it may not be anywhere close.
Urgency
Did you receive an email or text message expressing urgency? Scammers often use a sense of urgency to prompt you to act fast, that way you avoid taking your time to ask yourself “is this legitimate?” If you receive a text where you need to make a payment fast or complete a task to save an account from being banned or deleted, take a moment to investigate what is really going on. Ask for second opinions from those in your community or search up keywords of your text message or email online to see if others have encountered a similar message.
Professionalism
While human error happens with legitimate businesses and entities, you’ll tend to notice more grammatical errors and strange wording from scam messages and emails. Read unknown messages you receive carefully and look out for grammatical red flags and odd phrasing.
Links
Did a text message or email you receive contain a URL? Avoid clicking these links even if you don’t plan to log in. Especially on computers, clicking scam links can result in saved information on your device, such as cookies, or your IP address being grabbed and stolen by a malicious party. This can be scary but it’s easy to avoid by avoiding links in your inbox and instead going to the website yourself via a search engine.
For example, if you are sent a link prompting you to log into Amazon, even if it looks like it’s from Amazon, avoid clicking the link in your inbox and entering your information. Instead, manually look up the website and check your account to make sure there are no issues with your information or that there are any orders you did not authorize.
Passwords
Your password strength matters on every account you create, even if you have no payment information uploaded. Accounts on websites and apps you use can have vital private information including but not limited to your full name, address, phone number, payment information, and emails. Here are some tips for creating a password:
Avoid using names, birthdays, anniversaries, and anything similar
Insert a variety of characters, symbols and capitalization.
Aim for a longer password rather than the minimum requirement
Don’t reuse passwords across different accounts and applications. (If you do, once one password is obtained then all your passwords are.)
Sender Address
When you receive an unknown message or an email prompting you to act, looking at the sender address is another way to look for red flags. It’s important to remember that spoofing can be used to make a phone number appear as though it’s from your area. Another approach that scammers use for emails is making the address appear as though it’s from an official entity or business but there will be slight changes like:
The wrong website suffix or domain extensions (e.g., .com, .org, .net., etc.)
Replacing a character with something similar looking (like replacing a lowercase “l” with a capital “I”)
A letter is missing, duplicated or just incorrect
In Summary
To keep it simple, remember to use secure passwords, don’t assume the entity contacting you is who they say they are, fact check addresses and numbers, avoid suspicious links, and remember scammers will do anything to get information or money out of you. If you ever receive a call, text, email or letter from a Medicare or Insurance agency that you are unsure of, you can stop by Curtis Insurance at 509 7th Street, Mondays - Fridays, 9AM-5PM to ask us questions. Stay safe this holiday season.
