Social Engineering Scams
Expert Michael Strong from Blue Layer IT came by the station to talk a little more on social engineering scams and how you can protect yourself form these scams.
These scams are becoming more popular and we need to become more aware of what information we are giving out and who we should trust with our personal information.
Blue Layer IT partner Michael Strong says, “It’s difficult you can hack into a firewall … onto someones computer but at the end of the day if you can engineer somebody by email, by phone, by text message to fall for your trick, your scam, whatever it is, you’re far more likely to be successful because it only takes one person to make that mistake.”
Strong says it’s easy to purchase a number with an 806 area code or an 800 phone number and scammers are using those freshly purchased telephone numbers to have you fall for their scams.
“It can be from the 806 area code and then tell you things like a different payment method this time for these certain circumstances,” Strong added.
Becoming a better human firewall will help you identify what scams you shouldn’t fall for. Strong recommends having good security question would help you.
“You need to have strong passwords things like security questions. If the question is whats the name of your pet and fluffy is the answer and you have that all over Facebook that’s maybe not the best security question for you,” Strong said.
Strong added that it goes back to being a good human firewall so your work computer or your phone won’t be easy targets for scammers.
“So you need to look at that and pass it through your own human firewall filter if you will. This doesn’t look right, doesn’t feel right, doesn’t sound right. Don’t click on it if your suspicious.”
