On this week’s Guidelines:
- Valentine’s Day scams to keep away from
- Survey says…unsafe?
- Knowledge privateness on the SOTU
Avoiding scams this Valentine’s Day
As with all vacation, Valentine’s Day brings the seasonal scammers out of the woodwork. This 12 months, look out for these three widespread scams:
- Faux flower sellers: These scammers aren’t legit florists—they only arrange websites to promote flowers throughout the vacation. The rip-off right here is that they both fail to ship your flowers altogether, or that they ship one thing that’s nothing like what you ordered. Keep away from them by solely shopping for from trusted sellers—or by performing some severe analysis earlier than buying from a brand new vendor.
- Romance scams: The sort of rip-off takes many, many varieties. The widespread denominator is that the scammer pretends to be in love with you with a purpose to achieve your belief, after which asks for cash, delicate information, or intimate photographs or video to make use of for extortion. To study various kinds of romance scams, learn The best way to Keep away from Valentine’s Day Romance Scams.
- Phishing scams: As with different holidays, scammers additionally ship out Valentine’s Day-themed phishing emails. The very best wager right here is to discover ways to defend in opposition to phishing emails usually. For a primer, try Guidelines 37: Gone Phishing.
Are on-line surveys protected?
Who’s your excellent match? What sort of lover are you? Take this survey for an opportunity to win a free romantic getaway!
Sound acquainted? In case you spend any period of time on-line, it ought to. These sorts of surveys are in every single place. Some are imagined to be whimsical and enjoyable. Others pose as severe market analysis for companies. However as Phil Muncaster of WeLiveSecurity warns, on-line surveys generally is a actual safety threat—as a result of they’re lures, geared toward stealing passwords, getting access to delicate monetary information, or delivering malware.
Muncaster cites one research that discovered a cybercriminal gang clearing $80 million every month utilizing malicious surveys and giveaways.
With that sort of monetary incentive, the unhealthy guys aren’t prone to cease any time quickly. So right here’s what you are able to do to remain protected:
- Be cautious of unsolicited emails or texts.
- Take any survey that includes a well known model with a grain of salt—particularly if it’s tied to a present vacation season or massive occasion.
- In case you’ve taken a survey and are requested to pay for “delivery,” “tax,” or “processing charges” with a purpose to declare your prize, run the opposite manner. That’s an enormous pink flag, and an excellent signal you’re coping with a scammer.
- If a prize or “free present” is on supply, watch out. These are sometimes utilized in survey scams. Bear in mind, if it sounds too good to be true…it in all probability is!
Knowledge privateness will get a presidential shout-out
At instances, elevating consciousness about information privateness looks as if an uphill battle. So when the topic will get a high-profile point out, it’s noteworthy!
Throughout this week’s State of the Union Deal with, President Joe Biden mentioned:
We should lastly maintain social media firms accountable for experimenting they’re doing [on] youngsters for revenue…It’s time to go bipartisan laws to cease Massive Tech from accumulating private information on our children and youngsters on-line. Ban focused promoting to youngsters and impose stricter limits on the non-public information that firms acquire on all of us.
In a uncommon second of bipartisan unity, the President’s phrases about defending youngsters obtained a standing ovation from each side of the aisle. Whether or not or not that shared sentiment will translate into bipartisan laws is one other, extra sophisticated matter.
However the truth that information privateness is being talked about throughout a significant political occasion is critical. As one author for Wired put it, it suggests “a shift in mainstream understanding in regards to the urgency of bettering information privateness safety within the US.”
It’s not the GDPR…but it surely’s a begin.
