Cyber Wyoming: Cyber Brief for Jan. 9 week

Text with Voice Attachment Alert: If you receive a text with a pig and smiley face with sunglasses emojis as well as a voice recording attachment, a Laramie citizen wants you to know not to click on or download the voice recording. It is a well known scam.

Experian Alert: A Laramie citizen received a call from the real American Express credit card services asking if the citizen had applied for a high limit credit card. The citizen had not and was surprised to get the call because the citizen had placed a credit freeze on all of her credit reporting agency accounts. The American Express service representative said that the citizen’s Experian account was not frozen. The citizen looked it up in her records and found that it should have been locked, but went to Experian’s site and it was unlocked by someone other than her on Dec 18. She relocked the account and checked her credit. CyberWyoming Note: Experian has been in the news lately. Learn from this Laramie citizen and check your security freeze on Experian to make sure it is still active.

Blue Federal Credit Union Alert: The real Blue Federal Credit Union wants you to be aware of text scams asking you to click links. Hackers are using the knowledge that Blue is transitioning to a new online and mobile banking system. Blue FCU says they will NEVER send you links via text message to update your information.

The Universe Just Keeps on Giving: Despite CyberWyoming notifying Tut.com about the use of [email protected] email address, the universe just keeps on giving. This time a Sheridan citizen reported an Ace Hardware impersonation and Bed Bath & Beyond impersonation with a link that directed the citizen to hotfiles.com and a Lowes Shipment impersonation (and another one just from “Lowes”) with a link that went to a partnerportal.garmin.de website address. The subject lines were “Confirmation Needed”, “2nd attempt for [redacted name]”, “3rd attempt for [redacted name]”, and “Seriously [Redacted name], We don’t normally do this…” (Ironic don’t you think?)

ATM Card Scam: If you receive an email from Mr. Wilson Peterson at a Gmail address saying that you need to send a gift card to retrieve your ATM card, remember this is a typical scam and just delete. Reported by a Sheridan citizen.

Gig Worker Alert from Scambusters.org: Gig working is defined as temporary jobs in the service sector, usually filled by independent contractors or freelancers. They are often used as second jobs to increase income and one in six Americans say they’ve earned money from these types of jobs. In many cases, earnings are paid into a holding account at the employer’s company until the worker withdraws them or until the company transfers the money to the worker. Because these aren’t employees, they don’t have protections and are often unaware of scams. Scams are often seen in the form of phishing where the scammers pretend they’re either the employee company or the customer of the company when they approach the worker. They spoof (imitate) phone numbers or email addresses to look more legitimate and they usually say the worker’s sign-on details have been compromised to obtain the user ID and password to the holding account. Often the thieves use scare tactics saying the worker will be deactivated from the gig work if they don’t respond quickly. Scambusters.org also recommends that gig workers watch for advance payment scams (never pay upfront fees to get a job), fake checks, and fake websites advertising the need for gig work that steal personal financial information. Report fraud to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov.

Epic Games Settles with FTC: If you are a Fortnite player and gave the game saved your payment information (without telling you first), didn’t give you the chance to confirm purchases, made it hard to cancel the purchase, and locked you out of the game if you disputed a purchase, you aren’t alone. Epic Games just settled with the FTC and has to pay $245 million to hose they unfairly charged or locked out of a Fortnite account. Learn more here: https://www.ftc.gov/fortnite.

AnyDesk Trick: Thousands of us receive fake messages every day pretending to come from online retailers alerting us to account problems or orders we didn't place. There's usually a contact number which, if you call, connects you with a scammer who will try to get you to install an app called AnyDesk. This is a perfectly legitimate app enabling PCs and phones to be accessed remotely. You can guess the rest. Unless you want someone elsewhere to be able to access your devices, don't download and install it. Brought to you by scambusters.org.

MS-ISAC and CISA Patch Now Alert: The Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) or the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has published a patch now (update your software) alert for KSMBD for Linux, Google’s Android operating system, and Brocade’s Fabric operating system products. If you use these products, make sure the software (or firmware) is updated.   

Please report scams you may experience to [email protected] to alert your friends and neighbors.

Other ways to report a scam:

● Better Business Bureau Scam Tracker: http://www.bbb.org/scamtracker/us/reportscam

● Wyoming Attorney General’s Office, Consumer Protection 307-777-6397, 800-438-5799 or [email protected]

● File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/#/ 

● Report your scam to the FBI at https://www.ic3.gov/Home/FileComplaint 

● Reported unwanted calls to the Federal Trade Commission’s Do Not Call Registration. Online at https://www.donotcall.gov/report.html or call 1-888-382-1222, option 3

● Office of the Inspector General:  https://oig.ssa.gov/

● AARP Fraud Watch Network (any age welcome) Helpline 877-908-3360

● IRS: report email scams impersonating the IRS to [email protected]

● Call the Wyoming Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) for assistance with potential Medicare fraud, abuse, or errors at 1 800 856-4398

Victim Support: The AARP Fraud Watch Network and Volunteers of America (VOA) created a new, free program to provide emotional support for people impacted by a scam or fraud, called ReST. Visit http://www.aarp.org/fraudsupport to learn more about the free program and register.