It’s inevitable. Sooner or later, I will fall for a scam. Whether it means losing $5 or $50,000, I have no doubt that one day I will click on the link that gives over control of my computer and/or bank accounts.
I consider myself rather tech-savvy and cautious. But when I see an email at the end of a hard day that says, Your refund is waiting: CLICK HERE... I might just have a momentary lapse in judgement.
I know too many people who have fallen for online schemes, both large and small. It’s scary. We tend to be trusting people – we need this to survive. But when it comes to anything digital, be skeptical.
When our employer sent out a test scam e-mail a couple years ago, 15% of employees fell for it. They believed it was legitimate and clicked on the link. The email didn’t even try to look official – it had a big, colourful bar graph showing that your email inbox was over its storage limit, tempting us all to click on the link for more information.
While I didn’t fall for this one, I’ve come close to being fooled. When I received an email from someone I knew asking for money, it was a little disorienting. Why on earth would the board chair of a non-profit organization I’m part of be asking for an e-transfer? After a few emails back in forth, I figured out someone had hacked his email account.
On the flip side, I’ve gotten authentic emails that I’ve thrown straight into the junk bin. I recall one work email that almost everyone deleted, thinking it was a scam. Nope, turns out it was just a sloppily written email.
Better to delete an authentic message than open the wrong one. Ransomware has destroyed companies and has caused untold hardship for governments all over the world. Once a hacker has control over your data, you might as well cough up the cash, so it seems.
Usually you can spot the scams, especially if it’s a company or bank you don’t do business with. There’s often a misspelled word somewhere in the email or a link that looks too obviously devious: NETFLEX SUBCRIPTION EXPIRRED.
But the scams are becoming more sophisticated. Just ask Jon Podesta, former head of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. After receiving an alarming message from what looked like Google in spring of 2016, he clicked on the link and then entered his email’s password at the prompt. That gave some savvy Russians access to his email inbox, including damaging emails about Clinton just as her campaign kicked off. That was one big, “Oops, did I do that?”
These are called phishing schemes, where hackers try to get you to reveal personal information, whether it be passwords or banking information. Last week I heard about smishing schemes, where hackers send fake text messages to trick you into downloading malware that steals information from your phone. The text messages may look like they’re from the government, suggesting you’ve been ticketed, for example, and to click on the link to pay the fine. Once you click, it’s too late.
We’ve become such a one-click society that I have no doubt we’ll all soon be infected. I send e-transfers to people with one click. I buy things with one click. The other day I wrote a cheque for the first time in years and it took me at least 30 seconds to complete, largely because I’ve forgotten how to write in cursive. Who has the time for this??
But at least I knew that cheque wouldn’t be hacked or tracked by some malicious actor in Russia.
Convenience always comes at a cost. Be wary.
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