And just like that I almost got scammed.
I talk about scams and how to protect against them, so you would think that I would be particularly alert for the many types of scams I talk about. With confidence, though, can come complacence. I will be the first to admit that I don’t consider myself any better about avoiding scams than anyone else. I know that with the right messaging, with the right timing, I’m just as likely to be scammed. Recently, I was put to the test – and I failed.
Courtesy Pixabay
This scam came in the form of an email purportedly from my videoconference platform telling me that they were changing the terms of my account. It said that they were going to start using my info to sell to other businesses that might want to do business with me — with an option to opt-out.
That seemed reasonable, since I had an account on that videoconference platform, and they do send out notices of changes to the terms and conditions. The reason for changing made sense, since businesses want to earn money by selling information to other companies. Even the option to opt-out made sense because social media platforms will often add a new option but allow you to turn it off. This videoconference platform often adds new functionality and new configuration options. So this didn’t seem unusual.
The Stage Was Set For The Trap To Spring
My mind was not alert for any red flags, and since it had a link to opt-out, I want ahead and clicked on the link button in the email. (I can feel you cringing as you read that.)
It was only AFTER I clicked on the link (which did go to the same domain as the source of the email), that my mail system popped up a “Are you really sure you want to go to that site?” message and I realized something was not right. I realized this might not be a real email from the company. It took my browser’s anti-virus controls to alert me that the website I was being connected to might be harmful.
My Key Learnings
What I did wrong:
- I did not hover over the information about who the message was from to verify it came from the right domain and not a Gmail or Yahoo or other domain that isn’t used by companies for their own email.
- I clicked on a link in an email rather than going to the vendor’s website directly to investigate the update in terms and conditions
- I did not search for information about updated terms for this platform to see if others had highlighted this scam
What I did right:
- After getting the browser warning, I went to the platform website and asked the support bot about terms and conditions updating (it hadn’t) and whether the email was real (it wasn’t).
- I run a full scan on my computer to see if I had been infected with anything during that website interaction. My virus scanner did indeed find a crypto-currency trojan that, if run, would use my computer to mine cryptocurrency on someone else’s behalf. It was quickly removed.
- I became more aware again of potential scams and am now more sensitized to look for them.
It was a close call.
The Silver Cloud Lining
Recently, the Philly Federal Reserve released a working paper indicating that people who are scammed or nearly scammed (like me) are much more likely to take steps to avoid being scammed in the future. Many will take actions such as freezing their credit report (mine’s already frozen).
Basically, if you are like me and almost (or even successfully) got scammed, we are going to be more likely to take some action to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Because of my recent experience, I’m back on high-alert again!
Want more of this?
This is one of three articles we sent to our subscribers this month. If you subscribe to our newsletter you’ll get additional content not found in our blog. Plus, the newsletter will be delivered to your inbox automatically. Subscribe Now