COLORADO SPRINGS — As technology advances, so do the fraudsters who try to get your money and information. Anyone can encounter a phishing attempt.
Phishing is a “scam tactic that fraudsters use to trick consumers and employees into revealing personal information about themselves or the companies they work for,” according to the Better Business Bureau.
An employee at News5 received dozens of invoices from a company that was sent from what looked like a legitimate PayPal email address. One of the invoices said she owed $999.99, but she had no idea where the company’s request came from so, she deleted the email.
The BBB says these are the top three pieces of information that fraudsters are looking to get during a phishing attempt:
-Your Personal information
-Information about your company
-Your money
“The scammers are getting a little bit more savvy. There’s a lot more technology available right now with the advent of AI,” said Media Engagement and Digital Campaign Manager for Better Business Bureau Great Western Pacific Cameron Nakashima.
Nakashima is bringing awareness to the expanding horizon of online deceptions. He explains how some companies can make a fake email look real.
“You can use a software to send out emails and you can decide what that ‘from' email address is going to look like,” he said. “People can go out and make these look-a-like accounts that look similar at first, but with a little bit of extra digging, little extra time, you can kinda sniff out ‘Oh, something looks a little off about what I’m seeing here.”
You should ask yourself these three questions if you receive an email invoice, according to the BBB.
- Am I expecting an invoice?
- Do I know the person or company sending this?
- Are all of these URL links legitimate and how can I tell the difference?
“You would double-check the URL to make sure everything is spelled correctly. Is there a zero where an ‘O’ should be? Or are two letters transposed to make it at first glance look right but actually there’s something fishy going on here.”
Last year there were 195 reports of phishing attempts and fraudsters tried to take $263,938 from Coloradans, according to Nakashima. The organization received 259 reports of phishing attempts this year and fraudsters unsuccessfully tried to take more than $10.5 million from people in Colorado.
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