Cyber-Smart Week: Scams can happen to anyone

Online scams are everywhere, and even the smartest of people can be fooled.

OPINION

It’s Cyber-Smart Week this week.

I’d like to think I’m smart enough to not get caught out, but I’m also smart enough to realise even I can fall foul of scammers. I’ve seen a lot of online videos of these scammers trying anything and everything to trick people. So I’d rather not be complacent.

It has happened before. I’ve heard of a few very intelligent people who have been scammed, despite people thinking it wouldn’t be possible.

Having said that, these scammers often hit the most vulnerable members of our population. I’d like to think it was random, and for some of these call centres dedicated to robbing people of their life savings, it is. But the ones who often get caught are those who aren’t that tech-savvy.

A few years ago, I was flatting with a lovely lady who was in her 70s. She got a phone call one day, apparently from her ISP, saying that someone was using her account to download unmentionable stuff. I wasn’t privy to this call until several hours later.

By the time I found out about it, she’d been on the phone for five hours. And they still had access to her computer. She told me what was up and I hesitated. How do I tell my flatmate of just over a month that she’s being scammed?

I did tell her, and got her to shut it down and end the call. That didn’t stop the scammer from calling again to try to convince her it was genuine. By this time, we found out they’d taken money from her account. It wasn’t a huge amount, but it was enough to be gut-wrenching.

The miracle was, when we got on to the bank, we were able to retrieve the money. After that, she went on a mission to educate others in the community. She made the local newspaper. We even got on TV!

The point of all this is that scammers will do anything to convince you. There are steps you can take to protect yourself, and while they might feel annoying, the way I see it is, what’s worse? A minor inconvenience in security steps, or the major inconvenience of losing everything you’ve worked hard for?

The only issue I have with this is that with banks becoming more and more focused on online services, that doesn’t help to protect our most vulnerable, who know little about technology, or scams. The best we who are a bit more tech-savvy can do is educate them on what’s out there. We may not know everything, but at least we can help to get them started.