There are many new and creative techniques thieves are using
to get their hands on your money. One of the latest scams, however, doesn’t
directly involve you at all. It involves those who manage money for a living, and
thieves are seeking big dollars from these professionals that have access to
their clients’ money.
Instead of contacting those with money directly, scammers
are sending fraudulent e-mails to money managers posing as their clients. The
‘client’ then requests to have cash in their investment account transferred to
an account elsewhere. Unless money managers verify this request with contact
information on file at their firm, cash in an account could be unwittingly
transferred to an unscrupulous individual.
For federal employees with money in the Thrift Savings Plan,
this isn’t an issue. The TSP has many layers of security that prevent unscrupulous
people with a slick e-mail or a convincing phone call from gaining access to
money in these accounts.
There are still precautions you should take when setting up
any account online. Here are a few tips you can use to help keep scammers out
of your affairs:
-
Never use the same password for two or more accounts.
Make each one unique.
-
Never use a password that someone can guess by checking
out your social media profiles.
-
Never click on any link sent in an e-mail.
-
Never open a file sent to you from an unknown
individual.
While these tips may not completely shield someone from a
focused attack by a thief, they could potentially limit the damage. To learn
more about some of the latest Internet scams, go to: http://www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/e-scams.
What additional ways can you suggest to protect others from
Internet-based scams?
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