What a Relief!
I cannot begin to tell you how excited I was this weekend to receive an email, out of nowhere, from a long-lost cousin telling me that last week my very distant uncle had died and left me with a large sum of money. Imagine my surprise to find out I had a great, great, uncle who was a prince in Nigeria. I didn’t know about this relative but that’s not the point, the prince, in his infinite wisdom, saw fit to leave me 25 million British Pounds; a windfall to be sure. The good news is all I do to receive my inheritance is forward my banking information to them and they will wire me the money.
The timing of this could not have been better. Coincidentally, I recently took a phone call from a representative of the IRS who informed me my tax advisor had been wrong and I owed the government $100k in back taxes. Thankfully, the kind agent on the phone gave me the address to send my check, with interest. Now I have the money to write the check, which I will do as soon as I get my wire from Nigeria.
The wire will also help me get out of a sticky situation, that although embarrassing, will be much worse if I don’t send $25k immediately. It seems that someone hacked my laptop camera and filmed me doing unspeakable acts to myself; to make matters worse, when they hacked my laptop, they captured my address book and if I don’t pay the ransom, they will release the compromising video for all to see.
I am so relieved to have an answer to my sudden cash problem.
This silly story would be funny if I hadn’t really received these messages, but I did get them, as I am sure you have as well. Technology has provided so many benefits to humans that you couldn’t measure its impact. It has also given bad actors the ability to use technology to reach unsuspecting targets at a scale that is massive. Think about it, the above frauds likely don’t work very often, but it doesn’t take many successes to make it worthwhile; in fact, there is almost no costs associated with trying these scams. As sad as it is to realize, there are people who fall for this and are forever hurt.
I find this whole topic to be deplorable. To think that people would lower themselves to blatantly cheat someone else out of their money is truly sad; it is however not hard to believe. This is pure evil, and I’m not telling you something you don’t already know, evil exists.
To make matters worse, these financial scams tend to find their best results targeting the older members of society. It stands to reason the elderly are more susceptible to an attack; they did not grow up with technology as a part of their life, said differently many of the things twenty somethings view as a part of their day-to-day are new to retirees—social media is a good example. They also might be lonely and eager to get emails, or calls; they represent prime opportunities.
It makes me wonder what we should do to protect members of our society from the evils of technology-based criminals? I don’t know what the answer is, it is complex. Take for example the efforts companies make to protect themselves and educate their employees on the dangers of unwanted emails. In fact, last week I had to take a course that lasted an hour, followed by a quiz on how to avoid nefarious messages and scammers.
It is unrealistic to expect that the general population can or will have access to programs, nor the desire to learn how to avoid these problems. To be honest, I didn’t want to take the course.
Are we then wholly dependent on law enforcement to protect us? If that is the answer, then we are screwed. They do not typically have the expertise nor the resources to adequately educate and protect the public. A hundred years ago, a snake oil salesman who found his way into town hawking some miracle answer stood the risks of being exposed and, if not outed, at least had to go door to door to slowly distribute their wares. Today, bad actors send millions of messages every second of the day, seeking a way to take advantage of any victim who will fall for their story. The size of the challenge is overwhelming.
Last year there were over 880,000 cybercrime victims; in the first half of 2024 there have been over 214,000 reports of credit card fraud in the US. In a recent AARP article, they estimate that 42% of the US adult population has been a victim of fraud; a head spinning number. The most common online fraud is found on fraudulent government websites, dating and romance apps, and holiday fraud sites or emails.
As sad as it is to say this, it almost feels like we have made a pact to live with this mess, to get the benefits from being connected. Maybe that’s the reality and we are left with doing the best we can. However, we will all get older and likely become more susceptible to those who target us; cognitive decline, and isolation adding to our vulnerability.
I wish I could give an outline of all the steps you can take to protect yourself, but the overview would be too extensive. In short, if it sounds too good to be true, it is. I guess my uncle, the prince, isn’t real. Don’t click on links, unless you are absolutely sure what it is for, who sent it, and why. Look at the email address when you receive an email, the domain name will give you a clue if it is legitimate; even if the email looks like it is from someone you know, that’s not enough. Hackers use stolen addresses to reach out to their contacts. You must look to see if the domain is from the expected domain, like Gmail or AOL, etc.
I know my poor attempt at providing tidbits on avoiding problems is like pouring a glass of water in the ocean, it won’t make a difference. I put this in the category of a problem without a good solution. Regardless of what we do, we are likely to endure constant attempts to attack us; I wish that weren’t true, but it is. Thankfully, when we are attacked, we can count on our favorite distant relative from a far-away land to save us from our problems; what a relief that is.
