Street Level Scams!

Scam artists are everywhere.  One common denominator is that they con people who are willing to believe in the old "something for nothing" bit.  Another is to use FEAR to get people to cough up money or information.

I came across this interesting law enforcement scam page:

http://www.angelfire.com/ga4/lwwnw/scams.html

From the Lakewood, Georgia Police Department.

(Note, while a helpful page, it has a lot of ads on it, including pop-ups for screensavers which probably have malware in them.  Use with caution!)

Yea, I know, you're "too smart" to fall for scams like the ones listed there.

But smart people get snagged by these sort of things as well!

Ask Chelsea Clinton.  Her Father-In-Law just got out of jail.  Seems he got scammed in a classic Nigerian Con, and when he ran out of money, stole from his clients to make up the difference.

Whoops!

So never think it can't happen to you, and don't let shame or fear prevent you from reporting a scam or warning your friends.

Scammers are out there.  I just spent a half-hour helping someone recover from a Social Engineering scam - they got an e-mail saying that their account was being hacked, and that the fraud department was "on the case" and, oh by the way, what is your password?

NEVER give out that information.  When in doubt, close your browser, open a new one, and then log into the account in question from the real, bookmarked page.  NEVER click on a hotlink in an e-mail, no matter how "official" it looks!

It is sad, but our society is getting worse and worse this way.  And how the elderly can protect themselves from this sort of thing, I don't know.

I do not look forward to getting old!