How many times can Facebook breach our trust before we finally walk away from the site for good? The social networking giant appears to be Teflon when it comes to the number of mess-ups it can get away with.
You’d think the Cambridge Analytica fiasco would have been enough to make people run away in fear. But it didn’t. There are still over 2 billion active monthly users. Wow!
And the hits just keep on coming. A Facebook hoax has gone viral this week and it’s tricking tons of people.
If you’ve spent any time on Facebook this week, you probably saw at least a few friends posting that their account has been hacked. They say something like, “If you received a second friend request from me, don’t accept it. I’ve been hacked.”
The problem is, their account hasn’t really been hacked. It’s a hoax.
Here’s what’s happening: people are getting messages from friends or family members saying they’ve received another friend request from them. So their account must have been hacked, right?
The message then says you should forward it to all of your contacts. That’s why this is spreading like wildfire.
People are sending it to everyone they know and so on. But here’s the thing, it’s a hoax. No one actually received another friend request from you.
There are times when this type of thing happens, but this isn’t one of them. On occasion, scammers will steal photos and information that are available in public from Facebook accounts and create another one to mimic it.
That’s called an account cloning scam and are used to collect information about friends and send more scam messages.
But that’s not happening here. It appears some goofball just decided to mess with people to see if they could make this hoax go viral, and they did. Congrats.
There doesn’t appear to be anything malicious behind this, other than just being annoying. Like most things on Facebook these days.
If you’re worried about your Facebook account and if it’s been hacked, watch the following video. It gives you helpful ideas on how to make sure everything is OK.
A recent Bloomberg report has stated that their might be evidence that some Chinese computer manufacturers may be putting a spy chip within the servers that could give Chinese hackers a backdoor.
Open/download audioYou may believe that you’re too smart to fall for an e-mail scam, but millions of people still do. In this episode of Consumer Tech Update, Kim looks at one of the simplest email scams that is making the rounds right now and what we can do to defend against it.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Criminals are counting on us to overlook details and fall for their tricks. It just takes one mistake to have your entire bank account drained or your identity stolen. Crooks are getting sophisticated and they are polishing their techniques constantly, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce.
After the massive Facebook hack that stole the logins and passwords of 50 million users, they are on sale on the dark web. While it’s hard to put an actual monetary value on all of our information, the price this important data is going for might surprise you.
In a world full of spam and robo-calls, most of us look at an unknown number on our cell phones with a healthy dose of suspicion. What will happen if you answer? Will it be a legitimate call like an appointment reminder, or is it someone looking to scam you out of your money or personal information?
Crooks are always on the lookout for opportunities to trick potential victims into forking over some of their hard-earned cash. As such, they tend to target popular online services like Netflix. But watch out, scammers are sending fake Netflix emails again! If you’re not careful, they can drain you entire bank account. Warn your friends and family too so they don’t fall for it.
Robocalls are quite simply the most annoying modern tech drawback for many people. And aside from trying to sell you stuff, robocalls can be downright deceptive and malicious. Robocall scams are actually trying to rip you off or steal your identity. But is relief in sight? If anything, the robocall problem is just getting worse each year. But how worse, exactly? ou’ll be shocked with how robocalls are poised to take over more of our lives in years to come.
It’s amazing how many sneaky ways criminals find to rip us off. You’d think they would eventually run out of ideas, but that doesn’t seem to be happening anytime soon. This particular scam is very convincing and people all across the country are falling for it. Whether you’re a Costco member or not, you’re at great risk.
Check fraud has been on the rise lately, perhaps because this antiquated monetary system isn’t as popular as it used to be, and recipients are less defensive than they used to be. Checks take longer to clear than cards and wire transfers, so victims often take more time to realize anything is wrong. But don’t fall for these scams.
There are of course robocalls, which none of us like, but those are pretty easy to identify and hang up on. But what if you answered and the message was in Mandarin and it said to be from the Chinese consulate? If you understand the language you might be a bit more inclined to pay attention, so when the voice says you need to take some steps in order to avoid any kind of trouble with the government, you might listen.
Unwanted calls from scammers, telemarketers and robots are annoying. But they can also be eliminated by using call blocking apps on your phone. Stop annoying spam calls for good with the help of these great apps that are user friendly and keep pesky or malicious calls from interrupting your life.
It’s hard to remember life before social media. How did we know what our second aunt was up to? How did we pass time at the DMV? Was there really an era when “friending” wasn’t a verb? But not everybody loves Facebook. As crazy as it sounds, you can turn Facebook off. I’ll show you how it’s done!
Even with the federal Do Not Call registry in place, automated phone calls can still come flooding in. Many businesses sell your information to third parties. In fact, agreeing to this kind of information trade can be part of the deal for many free or low-cost services. The bottom line is: Robocalls are annoying and need to be stopped.
Podcasts do make boring subjects listenable. Most people blanch at the thought of history, or politics, or economics. But a good podcast can cut through all the resistance and share some good information in an entertaining way.
When it comes to personal data, cybercriminals know no limits. As long as there’s some potential profit involved, these scammers will try anything just to earn a quick buck. Identity theft is a big and thriving underground business in the black market. Why? Millions of Americans have their identities stolen every year, and not surprisingly, it’s the fastest-growing crime in the U.S. Well, it turns out, hackers are not only preying on the living, they’re targeting the dead, too!
