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Ask HN: Protect loved ones from online scams?

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Ask HN: Protect loved ones from online scams?

#1
In the past some of my loved ones fell into a variety of online and phone scams. Experience in development has helped me personally, but even I've been taken advantage of when my guard was down.

Most of my efforts helping others were too little or too late: educating after the fact, Ubuntu Linux (too incompatible), password managers (left unused), etc.

How does the HN community protect their loved ones from these things?

Re: Ask HN: Protect loved ones from online scams?

#3
What really irks me is getting an email like this:

    Shipping account suspended
	
    Dear XXXX,
    FedEx shipping privileges for account number ending in NNNN 
    have been suspended. To access and update your credit card
    data, log in to FedEx® Billing Online.

    Log in today (Button)
This just screams "scam", especially since I haven't used the FedEx account in months. When I log into FedEx (not using the link in the email), my account shows a zero balance and no outstanding messages. So I send the email, with headers, to "abuse@fedex.com". (They never answered.)

I call FedEx Revenue Services, and they can't find anything wrong with the account. They tell me the account isn't suspended. They want the expiration date on my credit card updated before the end of the month, but it hasn't expired yet.

I look at the message source, and it looks like it's really coming from FedEx, and the link really goes to FedEx. I keep looking, and can't find anything wrong in the headers. It's a legit email. It's just stupidity at FedEx.

Sloppy work, FedEx, sending out an email like that. You're training people to click on links they should not click on.

Re: Ask HN: Protect loved ones from online scams?

#4
Imo educating works best, you can only mitigate the problem with technology. I've only installed and configured a content blocker on grandma's computer as a passive measurement against scams and for general benefits.

Otherwise I just advised her not to give out personal information, including email, phone and credit card numbers. And don't click links in emails she does not recognize the sender or looks suspicious. Best not to even open them. In doubt, I'm usually available to doublecheck.

Pendrives caused a lot of problems in the past, luckily broadband solved most of the file transfer issues.

Re: Ask HN: Protect loved ones from online scams?

#6
July has been made scammer / spam month for whatever reason. Saw it on a British website... so not sure if it applies to the United States, but just because I had been receiving hundreds of spam emails to my website's email account, I can imagine that other people are receiving the same amount of spam.. and some are even falling for it.

As a result of this, I wrote a series of articles to try an educate my readers on the dangers of replying and/or dealing with any spam or scam emails.

Here are the links:

http://www.confessionsoftheprofessions.com/avoid-phishing-sc...

http://www.confessionsoftheprofessions.com/truth-seo-marketi...

http://www.confessionsoftheprofessions.com/confessions-profe...

http://www.confessionsoftheprofessions.com/how-to-notice-a-s...

http://www.confessionsoftheprofessions.com/teaching-children...

Re: Ask HN: Protect loved ones from online scams?

#7
post #3

What really irks me is getting an email like this: Shipping account suspended Dear XXXX, FedEx shipping privileges for account number ending in NNNN have been suspended. To access and update your credit card data, log in to FedEx® Billing Online. Log in today (Button) This just screams "scam", especially since I haven't used the FedEx account in months. When I log into FedEx (not using the link in the email), my acco…

It is very easy to spoof an email address[1], so it could be that it is someone from outside of FedEx.

https://superuser.com/questions/505503/how-can-you-fake-an-e...

Re: Ask HN: Protect loved ones from online scams?

#8
If you use the LogDog app, your online accounts are continously monitored for suspicious access. It sends an alert to your phone and prompts you to review the issue and change your password if necessary. We're trying to make it as understandable and as easy to operate as possible, so even technically-unsavvy people could benefit.

That being said, there's no getting around education. It's key to prevent a person from being scammed out of their passwords or oauth-access in the first place.

Re: Ask HN: Protect loved ones from online scams?

#9
post #7
post #3

What really irks me is getting an email like this: Shipping account suspended Dear XXXX, FedEx shipping privileges for account number ending in NNNN have been suspended. To access and update your credit card data, log in to FedEx® Billing Online. Log in today (Button) This just screams "scam", especially since I haven't used the FedEx account in months. When I log into FedEx (not using the link in the email), my acco…

It is very easy to spoof an email address[1], so it could be that it is someone from outside of FedEx. https://superuser.com/questions/505503/how-can-you-fake-an-e...

With SPF, DKIM, DMARC, coupled with blacklists and the reputation system of big mail providers that's making it difficult to host your own email, it's actually quite to impersonate an email address.

Try it, then see how many times you can hit a @gmail address.

Re: Ask HN: Protect loved ones from online scams?

#10
post #7
post #3

What really irks me is getting an email like this: Shipping account suspended Dear XXXX, FedEx shipping privileges for account number ending in NNNN have been suspended. To access and update your credit card data, log in to FedEx® Billing Online. Log in today (Button) This just screams "scam", especially since I haven't used the FedEx account in months. When I log into FedEx (not using the link in the email), my acco…

It is very easy to spoof an email address[1], so it could be that it is someone from outside of FedEx. https://superuser.com/questions/505503/how-can-you-fake-an-e...

Sure but if the link leads to the actual FedEx website then what would be the point?
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