![]() ![]() Unwanted Calls, Emails, and Texts Show/hide Unwanted Calls, Emails, and Texts menu items.Money-Making Opportunities and Investments.Jobs and Making Money Show/hide Jobs and Making Money menu items.Credit, Loans, and Debt Show/hide Credit, Loans, and Debt menu items.More information can be found at Anyone who was a victim of the Equifax data breach and wants to file a claim should visit the official claims website – Shopping and Donating Show/hide Shopping and Donating menu items And you want to make sure that any passwords that you have online – you change them frequently.” “You want to make sure that your social media is basically locked down. “You don’t want to give you private information out to anyone, especially those unsolicited through a phone call or an email,” says Ward. But the BBB’s Tammy Ward says protecting yourself comes down - to you. “And if you’re not careful you may be going to their site and not the site that you really want to be on.”Īlso, consumers should never respond to unsolicited emails asking for Social Security numbers, bank account details or other personal information.Ĭyber-scamming is also an ongoing battle between the good guys and bad guys, and who can grab the technological high ground. “You also want to double-check the URL there are several scammers out there now that will make one letter or one number different from the place that you actually want to go to,” Ward says. ![]() When it comes to protecting your private data that’s used for online transactions, Ward says start by making sure the URL online begins with “https” and there’s a padlock icon to indicate a secure webpage. “The first question we ask them is, ‘do you actually bank at that particular financial institution?’ And we have had people say ‘no ’ so we tell them, just delete the text.”Ĭredit Dave Dunwoody WUWF Public Media Tammy Ward, Better Business Bureau, Pensacola.Ĭonsumers are asked to find a bank statement they’ve received in the mail, then call their institution to see if it sent an email or text to them. “We’ve had several calls saying, ‘I got this text from such-and-such bank am I in trouble, do I need to respond to it?’” said Ward. It’s doesn’t make any sense.”Īnd as if there’s not enough to monitor through emails and social media, Ward says the bad guys are now using text messaging. Several times you’ll get messages that you can’t even understand if you actually read it out loud. “You also want to look inside the email and look at the English that’s in there. “For the most part if it doesn’t have anything to do with the accounting organization, it’s not going to be a legitimate email,” Ward said. Look first at the return address or email address. They may look legitimate - like from a credit card company - but it could be cut and paste. One sign you may be targeted by one a phishing scam, is getting a suspicious email from a dubious source. “We just hear about all the ones that are actually happening out there.” “The data breaches are happening, I believe, at this point on a daily basis if not an hourly basis,” says Tammy Ward with the Better Business Bureau in Pensacola. The page will ask for Social Security numbers and other personal data.”įloridians who feel they may have fallen for the phishing scheme should contact the attorney general’s office, at (866) 9NO-SCAM, or by visiting The same contacts apply when reporting a new scam, says Tammy Ward with the Better Business Bureau in Pensacola.Ĭredit Attorney General Ashley Moody. They are sending phishing emails to drive targets to a fake claims page. “A website is already in place to expedite claims and already scammers are trying to exploit the process. “Our settlement requires Equifax to pay victims through a claims process,” said Moody. A $600 million settlement was reached, $425 million of that going to a fund for the nearly half of all Americans affected. Moody is among 50 attorneys general in 48 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, who have reached a settlement with Equifax as the result of their 2017 investigation. ![]() “We are issuing a consumer alert about scams targeting the victims of the Equifax data breach the largest credit reporting data breach in our history.” “I’m Ashley Moody Florida’s Attorney General,” the online announcement begins. Consumers in Florida are getting a heads-up about a new phishing scam, which is targeting people already victimized in a data breach of the credit monitoring company Equifax. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |