ALERT: Toll Smishing Text Scam – Do Not Click!

ALERT: Toll Smishing Text Scam – Do Not Click!

The Ohio Turnpike and Infrastructure Commission, the FBI and SunPass are warning drivers of a text message smishing scam that requests payment for unpaid tolls. The FBI is recommending that if you receive a message like the one shown below, to take the following actions:

– Do not click the link in the text.

– Contact the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, also known as IC3, at www.ic3.gov, and include the phone number the text came from and the website listed within the text.

– If you have an EZ-Pass or SunPass account, check it via their legitimate website and let them know about the text.

– Delete the smishing text you received.

– If for any reason you accidentally clicked the link in the text and made a payment, contact your financial institution immediately to help secure your personal information and financial accounts. Contact our Member Services team at 1.888.966.4827 (GUARD) or email [email protected].

Screenshot image of a sample scam on an iphone

Being informed of what steps you may need to take before a slip up happens can help ease the potential damage (and your stress level) if it does occur. Guard Well Identity Theft Solutions exists to provide you, your family and your employees from the damages of identity theft. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you need help or have any questions or concerns. We are available for you 24/7/365 at 1.888.966.4827 (GUARD) and [email protected].

How to Spot a Scam with Children’s Health Insurance

How to Spot a Scam with Children’s Health Insurance

The cost of health care has skyrocketed in the United States. The very topic is as stressful as it is expensive. Did you know that the United States is the highest spending country on healthcare worldwide? In 2021, total health expenditure exceeded four trillion dollars with per capita health expenditure at $12,555.30. Statista Research recently reported that expenditure as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is projected to increase to approximately 20% by 2030.

During the pandemic, each state’s Medicaid Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) helped millions of families with the cost of healthcare. With the end of the pandemic, states are reaching out to update Medicaid enrollments and scammers are already taking advantage of the situation. CHIP won’t ask you to pay to renew … but scammers will.

Here is what you need to know:

– CHIP won’t charge you to renew or enroll. They may reach out to you via email, phone or text but they will NOT ask you to pay, for any of your personal financial information and especially your credit card number or bank account information.

– Do NOT click! Even if it looks like a message is from your state’s Medicaid agency, if there is anything clickable in a message, assume it is scam and visit medicaid.gov to get contact information for your state’s Medicaid agency.

– Utilize healthcare.gov to complete insurance plans, find coverage and see if you are eligible. The website will ask you for your monthly income and age to give you a quote.

– Understand that medical discount plans are NOT insurance plans. Scammers will pitch discount plans to entice you and make you think they are the same as insurance.

Guard Well Identity Theft Solutions exists to provide you, your family, and your employees from the damages of identity theft. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact our Member Services team immediately. We are always available for you 24/7/365 at 888.966.4827 (GUARD).

Source: Federal Trade Commission

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Charles Deluvio via unsplash.com

Bogus COVID Vaccine Survey

Bogus COVID Vaccine Survey

As millions of Americans are being vaccinated against COVID-19, scammers are working hard to steal their money and personal information through bogus COVID vaccination surveys. This can be confusing especially since there is a ‘v-safe’ after vaccination health checker that you are asked to download at the vaccination site after your first dose. V-safe is a legitimate app, which is a smart-phone based tool that uses text messaging and web surveys to provide personalized health check-ins after you receive a COVID-19 vaccination. Literature from v-safe says, “Through v-safe, you can quickly tell CDC if you have any side effects after getting the COVID-19 vaccine. Depending on your answers, someone from CDC may call to check on you. And v-safe will remind you to get your second vaccine dose if you need one.” For more information, visit https://vsafe.cdc.gov/en/.

 

Although v-safe is safe and legitimate, scammers have developed a new trick to steal. It doesn’t matter if the vaccine received was Pfizer, Moderna or AstraZeneca, people all across the country are being asked to complete a one-time survey in exchange for a free reward but one that requires the victim to pay shipping fees. According to the Federal Trade Commission, “No legitimate surveys ask for your credit card or bank account number to pay for a ‘free’ reward.”

 

What should you do if you receive an email or text you’re not sure about?

– In order to prevent malware that steals your personal information, don’t click on any links or open attachments.

– Don’t call or use the number in the email or text. The first thing you can do is run a search of the company that supposedly sent the message by looking up their phone number online.

– Don’t give out any bank information, credit card or other personal information to any organization that contacts you out of the blue.

– Consider adding a filter to prevent unwanted text messages on your phone by contacting your wireless provider and/or utilizing a call-blocking app.

 

Be vigilant. Be strong. If you have any concerns or think you have been a victim of a COVID vaccination scam, please contact our Member Services immediately. We are always available for you 24/7/365 at 888.966.GUARD (4827).

 

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash.com

Cybersecurity Trends in Store for 2020

Cybersecurity Trends in Store for 2020

Did you know that the first documented ransomware attack was more than 30 years ago in 1989? That was around the time when a mobile phone was called a bag phone because it sat in a big black bag in your passenger seat … and that curly cord was wound so tight it hardly let it extend to your ear. If you were lucky, you could store about 30 numbers in it. But back then, that was pretty amazing storage. Then flip phones started to make our lives easier in later years. It was pretty simple but the fact that it could actually fit in your pocket made it truly mobile. There was rarely a thought that anyone was listening in on your conversations or tracking your locations (which they probably were but the average person didn’t think doing so was devious). Boy, have times changed.

 

Attacks involving ransomware, which were originally designed to target individuals, are occurring every 14 seconds now. Shocking isn’t it. After you read this sentence, focus on how long it takes you to breathe … inhale and exhale. Your full circle breathing process is likely anywhere from six to eight seconds, which is how long hackers are trying to increase the speed of ransomware attacks by this time next year.

 

Dave Wallen discussed some of the expected 2020 cybersecurity trends in a blog last week for Security Boulevard so we all can be “better prepared against the ever-evolving nature of cyber threats.” He wrote, “With today’s pervasive use of the internet, a modern surge in cyberattacks and the benefit of hindsight, it’s easy to see how ignoring security decades ago was a massive flaw.” It’s not just the speed of the attacks that is alarming, it is the variety of them that are going to keep things interesting for 2020.

 

So what are some of the trends we will be seeing in 2020?

 

Fear will drive spending. Gartner forecasts that worldwide spending on cybersecurity is going to reach $133.7 billion in 2022. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) have pushed businesses and government agencies to a more sophisticated cybersecurity infrastructure than ever. Wallen noted that 76% of organizations plan to increase their cybersecurity budgets this year.

 

The cybersecurity labor market will continue to experience labor shortages. There are many reasons for this skills gap. Not only are there more cybercriminals, but there are also more places for scammers to hide with our ever-expanding reliance on technology. Also, there still needs to be a balance of expanding skills in a very specific area with teaching broad skills that can be useful across many sectors. Think of those with titles such as chief information officer (CIO) and chief information security officer (CISO) – they are currently undervalued.

 

Cloud security will require a more pragmatic approach. The assumption that our data is secure on ‘the cloud’ in applications such as Microsoft and Google will be a thing of the past. In 2019, we saw massive attacks against Office 365 and G Suite that can bypass two-factor authentification making shared accounts exceptionally vulnerable.

 

Mobile devices will become even a greater target. As the number of mobile users increases, so will the amount of business data stored in them. Wallen wrote, “It’s a compelling reason why mobiles are seen as the primary cyberattack vector in 2020.”

 

Election security will be off the charts. With over 70 elections globally planned in 2020, there will be an intense focus on the spreading of disinformation.

 

5G, the fifth-generation wireless technology, will cause an increase in loT-based (Internet of Things) attacks. There will need to be a higher level of security which many current vendors are not able to provide yet. Hackers will take advantage of this gap to “sneak in malware and steal large volumes of your SaaS data at breakneck speed.”

 

AI (Artificial Intelligence) will become even more two-faced. While the benefits of AI are countless and help to protect our security, defakes (fake videos) that can spread misinformation will become more prominent and new types of cyberattacks will result because of them.

 

Organizations will continue to see their biggest asset, their employees, become their biggest threat. As reported in Governing.com, “The problem is that now our most important information, whether it’s sales prospects or customer lists or source code … is spread across the organization and is highly portable on a thumb drive or e-mail … information is less ‘siloed.'” Their study shows that “63 percent of people admit that they took data from their last job and brought it to their current job.”

 

We will also continue to see more fake apps and shopping cart viruses, new account fraud, apps that share our data along with phishing scams (and whaling scams if you’re a high-ranking executive or banker). Identity theft will also be rampant through social media. Lastly, child identity theft will continue to rise. It is suggested that every child have a credit freeze on their file. If you would like more information about how to do so, please reach out to our Member Services team at [email protected] or call 1.888.966.4827. We are here to help 24/7/365.