Cyber Criminals

Scammers, Hackers, spammers and other cyber criminals suck.

Nobody likes getting scammed. When it happens to you, it feels like someone has thrust a pail full of sludge into your face.

Nawlins

There was one time in New Orleans, in 1988 when my husband and I were trekking across the street at dusk on the seedier end of town, when two hoodlums approached. “Uh oh,” Mark said.

The tall one boasted, “I bet I can tell you where you got your shoes! Give me fifteen dollars if I’m right!” Mark and I looked at each other, knowing that we had to play by our wits because this scenario could go very wrong, very quickly. We continued walking towards the lights and throngs of N’awlins. “Sure, uh huh,” said Mark.

“You got your shoes on the ends of your feet!” said the tall one, victoriously extending his hand. Mark shuffled through a pocket and pulled out a crumpled five. “Here ya go.” We of course kept on walking.

“Hey, this ain’t fifteen!”

Hurricane Escape

“That’s all you’re getting from us,” said Mark, who at that moment, pulled open the door of a Hurricane establishment filled with frothy neon concoctions in plexiglass bins, and ushered me in. We stayed inside, among the giddy crowd, tasting the Strawberry Daquiri, Pina Colada, Bananarama, etc., and we bided our time until we were certain those two street creeps were long gone.

Now just imagine those two players by the hundreds in the virtual cities of the Internet. I have noticed so many more scammers edging in through the teeny cracks in my computer’s Malware these days. Their spam is rude, relentless and annoying. But it’s becoming easier to identify, even just by glancing at the subject line.

Spam Email – More Cyber Criminals

When you see email from a friend with nothing in the subject line, and only a link in the body of the email, get rid of it. It means that someone has probably hacked your friend’s computer and is sending viral links to everyone on your friend’s email list.

The Nigerian banking scam has morphed into more sophisticated and less obvious types of correspondence. We recently received what seemed to be a bona-fide email from someone seeking our video production services here in San Diego. HOWEVER, after googling the company name, I found that other people had received similar emails that were proven to be a scam. So, when in doubt, google the company, the name of the person sending the email, or any other information appearing on the email.

Grammar

Something else that offers a clue as to the efficacy of the email is grammar. I noticed that the woman who queried us about our video production services claimed to be a doctor working with a company in the UK, but her English grammar was atrocious. An email fraught with fractured English MIGHT be on the level, but PROBABLY is spam that stinks of scam.

We Internet surfers have reached a time in our lives when it is wise to be wary of all the sharks, jellyfish and sea snakes propagating the waters. Invest in good security software for your computer.  If you have a website, make sure it’s secure, too.  I once spent an hour on the telephone with a security technician who explained how hundreds of scammers attempt to breach the walls of our website every week.  It’s enough to want to escape to a remote island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean like Marlon Brando.

Can you imagine having your website kidnapped and held for ransom?  It is a common occurrence today. Police department fraud units cannot keep up with the massive amount of criminal online activity today.

So, always be aware of your surroundings and make sure you are protected from every angle. Safety first.

Patty Mooney is a VP, Video Producer, Video Editor, Sound Technician, Teleprompter Operator and Writer at San Diego Video Production Company, Crystal Pyramid Productions.