Broadcast Retirement Network’s Jeffrey Snyder discusses how to protect yourself and loved ones from cyber fraud and scams with the Identity Theft Resource Center’s Eva Velasquez.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Joining me now, Eva Valesquez, is with the Identity Theft Resource Center. Eva, so great to see you. Thanks again for joining us this morning.
Eva Velasquez, Identity Theft Resource Center
Oh, I’m so glad to be back.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
You know, it was only yesterday, Eva, well, maybe about a month ago, when you were on talking about the big grandiose report you have that your organization puts out about all the scams and threats. We were, you know, I think we had a good conversation about that. We warned a lot of people, but there have been some recent geopolitical events that I think put in motion even more scams, even more cyber threats.
I wanna get your reaction to what’s going on and how you look at it through the cybersecurity lens.
Eva Velasquez, Identity Theft Resource Center
Look, anytime you have a big global event, that’s going to create more opportunities and vulnerabilities in our systems. So it absolutely stands to reason that given what’s happening right now, they are going, the bad actors are going to be looking both for ways to weaken our defense and for ways to exploit any vulnerabilities that already exist because we’re paying attention to other things, right? We are, I don’t wanna say distracted, but our focus is on other things.
So that absolutely is going to happen. And it kind of doesn’t matter what the big global event is, we see this with huge weather events and disasters. We see this with if there is something going on in other countries with their political organizations and even with their economies.
So it’s not unusual, unfortunately, for the bad guys to come out of the woodwork even more. And we were already at a heightened state of scams increasing, cybersecurity events increasing. It’s not a surprise.
It’s an unfortunate reality, but it’s not a surprise.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
So let’s talk about, we had a good conversation about scams. They’re gonna be enhanced. Are there more vulnerable parts of our population that really should keep their ears up, their eyes open and really boots to the ground when it comes to scams?
Eva Velasquez, Identity Theft Resource Center
Yes, there are. And those are the people that want to be engaged and they want to do something. They don’t like seeing harm.
They support our troops. They may want to just really help people. This is one of the most despicable in my mind, types of scams where the bad guys prey either on people’s hope or on their good nature, on their humanity.
So I am sure we aren’t seeing it in our contact center yet. I think we’re a couple of weeks out before we start getting the calls, but we are definitely going to see a lot more around that area. Charity scams, scans where they’re asking you to help an individual.
Maybe it’s someone who’s in one of these places, a stranded traveler, a government worker, a foreign aid worker. And they’re going to play on your desire to do something good to help someone who’s in peril and ask for money, ask for your information. I’m sure we’re gonna continue to see imposter scams.
And believe me, imposter scams, the most common type of scam, they’re through the roof, they hold steady at number one, and they will use, the bad guys, will use some form, they will impersonate, whether it’s a charity, just a fake charity, whether it’s an individual who, again, may be stranded or needs help. Those are definitely going to proliferate. So I really want people to be on their guard.
If you want to do something to help, if you want to do something good, please, you pick the charity. Don’t let them pick you.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, or don’t let the bad actors pick you, of course. Let’s talk about the vehicle by which these scams are gonna happen. I suspect the phone is the predominant way that people are gonna reach out to dupe, I’ll call it duping people.
It’s gonna be voice, you said imposter scams. I presume it’s gonna be text message, and there’s gonna be phishing or email. Did I miss anything?
Are there any other?
Eva Velasquez, Identity Theft Resource Center
Social media, it’s absolutely going to proliferate on social media. And I think the jury’s out in my mind of which channel is going to be the one where we see the most traffic, because the bad guys don’t discriminate. They don’t, they’re gonna do whatever works.
And we as human beings, we’re all different. Some people, regardless of your age, you may be very active on social media, but you really don’t answer the phone very often. Or vice versa, maybe you’re not really online, but when that call comes in, you answer the phone.
They are not going to pick and choose and say, well, I’m only going to try to commit my crimes through one channel. And it may be different bad actors that are using different channels, but I think they’re all going to be deluged. So I think we’re gonna see increases in calls, text messages, emails, social media, not only direct messages, but simply fake pages, fake profiles being set up.
A lot of times they’ll use GoFundMe accounts. And while the GoFundMe platform is a legitimate platform, the bad actors will insert themselves and they will own that account, but they’ll say that it’s for something else.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
And they probably, Ava, will use, as you were talking about social media, I was thinking about artificial intelligence and some videos to really pull at your heartstrings, right? I mean, it’s not too difficult for artificial intelligence to create a video or reference images.
Eva Velasquez, Identity Theft Resource Center
Oh, it takes very little effort. It takes very little skill and it costs very little money to create these fictions, these fictions out of thin air that look very, very real, whether it’s a flyer or a photo or a collage of photos and videos. I hate to say it, but you really can’t trust those things when they’re incoming.
If you decide that this is something that you want to support, I always tell people get off the channel, that you were solicited on and go directly to a charity’s website, a legitimate charity. And we’ve made it so easy now to figure out who’s real and who’s fake. There are organizations like the Better Business Bureau, like Candid.
Oh gosh, there’s a number of other ones and now they’re not coming to mind.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Well, that’s okay. It’s not a quiz, but knowing that BBB and others are out there, basically do your research.
Eva Velasquez, Identity Theft Resource Center
I mean, if you just Google third party accreditation for charities, you will get a list of legitimate third parties that do a deep dive and look into charities, how long they’ve been around, who their leadership is, what their finances are. I mean, I know this because the ITRC is a charity and we go through these processes to demonstrate to the public that we’re legitimate, we’re good stewards of those donations and those funds. So there are definitely ways that you can find out is this legitimate or not?
It doesn’t take that long, but what the bad guys are banking on is that you are gonna be so moved and your heartstrings are going to be so pulled that you won’t take the five minutes. You’re just gonna go, yes, I want to do something and you’ll do it right away. It doesn’t make you a bad person.
It doesn’t make you unsympathetic to what’s going on if you take that five minutes to check. In fact, that’s so much better because it ensures that the money you’re donating, the money you’re trying to use to help is actually going to get to those people that need the help and not in the pockets of a bad guy.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
So in the remaining minute or so that we have, Eva, if I see one of these scams, I pick it out, I sniff it out, who do I contact? And tell us a little bit about the call center. Can I call, I know I can’t call Eva Velazquez, but can I call the, maybe I can, I don’t know.
But do I call your call center and how can they help?
Eva Velasquez, Identity Theft Resource Center
Yes, yes. We are not a reporting organization. I would encourage people to report.
If you didn’t engage with the scammer, but you’ve seen it, please report it to the FTC, report it to IC3, which is the Internet Crimes Complaint Center. And they will log that and they look for patterns and do investigations. If you actually did engage and you need help, maybe you did share some of your information.
Maybe you’re just being deluged now by all of these offers and you need to make sure that your data is secure, that your identity is secure, and that you can figure out how to see if one of these offers is legitimate. By all means, call our toll-free number. Everything we do is free to the public.
All of the advice, recovery plans, all of our educational resources, all at no cost to the public. And you can talk to a real person. It’s not a chat bot.
It’s not an AI agent. These are real trained advisors that you can talk to and get the information that you need. And it’s 888-455-30.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
888-455-30. Ava, it’s always great to talk to you. I feel better already.
I know the audience does as well. Thanks so much for joining us. And look, we look forward to having you back on the program again very soon.
Eva Velasquez, Identity Theft Resource Center
It was great to be here, and I hope we can help some folks.