With the growing Coronavirus impact on our society, scams are also growing exponentially. Below is a summary of several of the most common scams, and resources to help you stay ahead of this fraud in the midst of COVID-19.
Staying Vigilant Against Fraud in the Midst of COVID-19
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, frauds and scams are emerging. Americans need to be aware that there are individuals attempting to profiteer from this emergency through online phishing scams, door-to-door COVID-19 testing offers, falsely promising free care, etc.
Report Suspected COVID-19 Fraud to National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline:
Below is a list of 5 scams designed to defraud you in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Phishing Scams
We are all looking to keep up with all that is happening with the Coronavirus. Our eagerness and fear may be making us more vulnerable to fake coronavirus update emails, and texts. Think before you click on links, ask yourself if it makes sense. You may be one click away from being infected by malware and adding more stress to your life. Do not give out any personal information over the phone!
Fake Government Representations
The bad guys are pretending to be government representatives. Don’t respond to texts and emails about checks from the government. The details are still being worked out. Anyone who tells you they can get you the money now is a scammer.
Here is an example of a fake Government Representation:
As the U.S. government considers a financial relief package for citizens, false claims of the government sending a $1000 relief check to individuals are already in the works by scammers who seem to be a step ahead of any official decision. Fraudsters are posing as the government to collect your personal information such as Social Security numbers or bank account numbers to send out your “coronavirus financial aid” deposit.
Update and Donation Sites Websites designed to collect your Personal Identifiable Information (PII) are being published.
Some examples we have seen:
Coronavirus updates
Emergency Response Plan Sites
Donation Sites
Others include the “sale” of things like facemasks, sanitizer, test kits etc.
NO CURE… The FTC and FDA have jointly issued warning letters to seven sellers of unapproved and misbranded products, claiming they can treat or prevent the Coronavirus. The companies’ products include teas, essential oils, and colloidal silver.The FTC says the companies have no evidence to back up their claims — as required by law. The FDA says there are no approved vaccines, drugs or investigational products currently available to treat or prevent the virus. Read more about the warning letters.
Fake Jobs This has affected all of us in one way or another. Unfortunately, some have lost their jobs and are looking for a solution. The dirtbags know this and are creating fake job postings to entice some of us to participate in a scam or to provide PII. Make sure you know what you are applying for and do your research before you provide any information.
We are all dealing with this in our own ways but we need to be careful. Careful with each other but also with potential fraud in the midst of COVID-19.
If you think you have been a victim, please do not hesitate to reach out to us here at defend-id. Or if you spot a fraud please report it:
Report Suspected COVID-19 Fraud to National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline:
I read a great article last week by Risk Based Security – a leader in vulnerability intelligence – about modern phishing attempts (please see here) and how Coronavirus Fear and Anxiety Drives Phishing Scams. “malicious attackers are targeting unsuspecting people on the web.”
This article said there was a “tendency to associate phishing with crude boilerplate emails, dubious attachments, and poor attention spans”. But, sophisticated “attackers were spoofing system update prompts or redirecting users to pages with all sorts of dubious code.”
But it gets worse. Cyber thieves and ID theft criminals didn’t are already taking advantage of fear and anxiety surrounding the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Risk-Based Security then released another article titled Coronavirus Isn’t the Only Virus Going Around (please see here) reporting that “malicious attackers will always find new ways to target individuals and organizations. This time, hackers are installing malware on computers and harvesting user credentials by preying on people’s curiosity and fear of the coronavirus (COVID-19).”
Phishing Example
One new phishing example is where “scammers pose as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) advising that there are new COVID-19 cases reported in the user’s city and requesting that they follow a link to learn more. From there, clicking the provided URL covertly redirects the user to a spoofed login page. If the user completes the process by providing their credentials, they are now compromised.”
The Major Cause
For years I have written and spoken on how IT and hacking are the sizzle that makes the news headlines. However, the vast majority of data breach events are the result of phishing emails and not high technology hacking tools.
According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 2019 Internet Crime Report (please see here), phishing scams were the most common type of internet crime last year where 114,000 U.S. consumers lost more than $57.8 million in 2019 as the result of phishing.
Let’s not forget…
that cyber and ID theft criminals pretend to be trustworthy to trick people into handing over personal details or account information. Now COVID-19 related scams are showing up in multiple locations including the internet, your work email, and your personal email.
Based on the severity of our national emergency and because of Coronavirus Fear and Anxiety Drives Phishing Scams – we need to be diligent and aware of the numerous phishing emails and scams in the foreseeable future.
By Mark Pribish
Vice President and ID Theft Practice Leader
John Iannarelli, former FBI Special Agent offers 4 SMB Cybersecurity tips. Is your business safe from the cybersecurity threat?
According to the Allianz Risk Barometer for 2020, cyber incidents ranked as the number one business risk in its ninth annual survey of risk experts.
Based on the above, I just interviewed former FBI Special Agent John Iannarelli (http://fbijohn.com/) in between his national television appearances on Fox News and Fox Business.
Mr. Iannarelli retired from the FBI after more than 20 years of service, during which time he was the FBI’s National Spokesperson, on the FBI Cyber Division executive staff, an FBI SWAT team member, and the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Phoenix Division, where he oversaw all Criminal, Cyber, and Counter Intelligence investigations throughout Arizona.
Since leaving the FBI, Mr. Iannarelli is an active contributor for national news outlets, keynote speaker, author, and security consultant.
I asked Mr. Iannarelli for simple advice on how to keep small businesses safer in 2020. Here are his 4 cybersecurity tips for small businesses and sole proprietors:
Ransomware
“Maintaining a strong firewall, keeping your security software up to date, and the patching of vulnerable software is critical”, said Iannarelli. He also said, “The restoration of your computer files from a backup is the fastest way to safely regain access to your data.” Mr. Iannarelli recommends “to not pay the ransom as there is no guarantee that you will be able to regain access to your files and that once you pay the cybercriminals they are likely to attack again.”
Hackers steal consumer data from devices connected to unsecured networks by positioning themselves between you and the connection point. This means that instead of talking directly with the hotspot, you end up sending your data to the hacker. Mr. Iannarelli recommends “use of VPNencryption to help prevent cybercriminals from hacking into your Wi–Fi connection and intercepting the data you send and receive.”
Vendor Due Diligence
According to the Ponemon Institute, third-party breaches remain a dominant security challenge for small and large businesses. Over 63% of data breaches are linked to a third party. He said, “Small businesses should establish information security and governance best practices including a data breach and incident response policy and plan.”. A plan will protect your business, help win new business, and elevate your due diligence profile.
State and Federal Notification Laws
Since the United States does not have a Federal Privacy law. Mr. Iannarelli stated“understanding current state privacy laws where your small business conducts business is critical to responding to a data breach event in a timely and effective manner.”
If you have been victimized by an online scam or any other cyber fraud, be sure to report it to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.IC3.gov or call your local FBI office.
By Mark Pribish
Vice President and ID Theft Practice Leader
The latest research and identity theft trends indicate significant patterns. Patterns that can help consumers and businesses mitigate their risks against identity theft. One of these trends points to the unfortunate potential that senior identity theft is going to get significantly worse.
Research
Based on the first half of this year – where 11 of the largest 13 data breach events occurred at medical or healthcare organizations (please see here) affecting nearly 24 million healthcare-related records.
And we believe senior identity theft and fraud will get significantly worse in 2020.
When you think about lost or stolen Personally Identifiable Information (PII), most people think about:
credit card information,
bank account information,
taxpayer identity theft and refund fraud,
utility identity theft and fraud, and
credential identity theft such as driver’s license or passport fraud.
Healthcare is a Target
According to Protenus, a healthcare compliance analytics company, (please see here) this healthcare industry data breach pattern includes 503 incidents affecting nearly 15.1 million patient records in 2018 and 477 data breaches affecting 5.6 million patient records in 2017.
Very few people think about medical identity theft in general and senior identity theft in particular. Click here to read about how ID Theft Increases Stress and Fatigue
However, when the collections firm American Medical Collections Agency (AMCA) – which services laboratories, hospitals, physician groups, billing services and medical providers throughout the United States – experienced a data breach including Labcorp affecting 7.7 million patients and Quest Diagnostics affecting 11.9 million patients, we have to wondered how safe and secure all American consumer billing records really are?
The Senior Population
Another interesting statistic comes from the 2019 Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book where 39% of fraud complaints and 15.9% of identity theft complaints impacted seniors (60 years or older) in 2018 (please see here).
If you add the mature market (50 – 59 years of age), the “Identity Theft Reports by Age” from the FTC Consumer Sentinel Network shows a three year average of 36% of identity theft victims were 50 years and older.
There were “only” 14.4 million identity theft victims in 2018, a drop from the record-breaking 16.7 million victims in 2017. But it is estimated that out-of-pocket fraud costs for victims more than doubled in 2 Years to $1.7 billion.
The FTC report also showed that younger people reported losing money to fraud more often than older people. Older people lost nearly twice the amount to fraud than the more frequently reported younger reports.
Nearly 50 million health-related records have been reported stolen from over 1,000 data breaches over the last 30 months. The statistics are staggering and will likely have an enormous, negative effect on seniors over the next couple of years.
Written by Mark Pribish – ID Theft Protection Expert
What is Dark Web Monitoring in the world of identity theft? How can Dark Web Monitoring help mitigate the risks of Identity theft and Fraud?
But wait, what are the Deep, Dark and Surface Web?
The Surface Web is what you think of when you think of the internet. Any site you are accessing through search engines only makes up about .03% of the internet available. 99.97% of the internet is made up of un-indexed pages, or the Deep Web.
The Deep web is often confused with the Dark web but they are two very distinctive things. The deep web is the entire web that is not accessible by conventional search engines but the dark web is a certain website within the deep web that is linked to criminal activity and illegal market places.
Dark Web monitoring is an intelligent and proactive identity theft detection solution that searches for compromised information across the deep, dark and surface web, as well as underground forums and file-sharing sources.
What is the benefit?
By performing comprehensive reviews of websites frequented by hackers and cybercriminals, it is possible to detect your personal information being traded or sold before the criminal uses it.
When you enroll, you will have full control over what information you choose to be monitored. We then continuously (24/7) monitor the deep, dark and surface web to detect the trading and selling of the information you provided. If we find any of the information being monitored, you will receive a notification that your information has been found online. This alert allows you to take immediate action to prevent, or reduce losses, such as changing a password or closing an account.
FEATURES
BENEFIT
Dark Web Monitoring – Proactive monitoring if your identity or supplied credentials are stolen or compromised. Be alerted if your data is discovered being traded or sold on the dark, deep or surface web.
Alerts are sent to you when your information is detected as compromised on the dark, deep or surface web.
This gives you a heads up so that you can work swiftly to respond, reducing or eliminating potential losses.
If you receive a dark web monitoring alert, you can immediately act to change
Have you ever thought about how installing smart or connected devices such as a residential doorbell or security camera using a Wi-Fi connection can put your personal or business data at risk of being hacked or sold to third parties like advertisers? Personal privacy and the internet of things should be on all of our minds as we continue to become more and more connected.
Day to Day Convenience
An October 1, 2019 article titled Smart Home Devices and Privacy Risk (please see here) states “while ‘smart home’ or internet of things (IoT) devices have become more prevalent and may make every day or business tasks more convenient, they also diminish consumers’ privacy and introduce serious risks, for both users and device developers and manufacturers.”
According to Statista, a leading provider of market and consumer data, there will be 75 billion connected devices worldwide by 2025 (please see here).
Connected Devices
When I think of connected devices I think of business sectors such as
Utilities (programmable thermostats),
Residential Security (residential doorbells with surveillance cameras and microphones),
Smart and Self-Driving Automobiles (onboard computers, infotainment/entertainment systems, and apps) and
Healthcare (medical devices such as a pacemaker and mobile apps) to name a few.
Benefits
In each instance, these connected business sectors and devices help save money, increase efficiencies and improve our quality of life.
The Risks
The same business sectors and devices can also give hackers and insider threats the opportunity to steal personally identifiable information (PII) leading to any consumer becoming a victim of identity theft.
Think about it, if you can unlock the front door of your house remotely – so can a hacker. If you can start your car or unlock the door locks of your car remotely – so can a hacker?
And if any of your devices or service providers are connected to the cloud to collect, store and/or transfer information – hackers and insider threats can collect, store and/or transfer the same information.
While consumers are excited to have a more connected lifestyle, consumers should also be concerned about the increased risk of identity theft and data breach events.
So what can you do about it?
Consumers can protect themselves in a number of ways including:
By changing their default usernames and passwords
Setting strong passwords
Updating their security software regularly
Check the device for default privacy and security settings
Disabling remote access to your IoT devices (where applicable)
Every IoT device comes with a built-in web interface to configure the settings mentioned above. In addition to securing any new smart devices, be sure to configure any existing IoT devices you already have.
Personal Privacy and the Internet Of Things is a concern we should consider seriously and take the precautionary steps needed with these increased risks.
By Mark Pribish
ID Theft Practice Leader
Keywords: #Personal Privacy, #Internet of Things, #Smart Devices, #Identity Theft
