Brought to you by WBIW News and Network Indiana
Last updated on Wednesday, January 10, 2018
(INDIANAPOLIS) - In 2017, “phishing” - those emails or texts that look legitimate but are not - became the number-one scam in the US, knocking the tax-collection scam out of first place.
Once a bogus phishing text or email is opened, thieves can often access personal information on a phone or computer.
Steve Bernas with the Better Business Bureau in Chicago says what's even worse is that they can often infect your workplace systems as well.
"Employees or customers, as well as consumers, tend to click on these phishing emails and then what happens is they open up the corporate computers that way to scammers' malware and viruses - and that's how these companies get hacked," Bernas says.
Bernas advises people to never open a file or link in an email that they weren't expecting.
Another scam that popped up often last year is known as "Can You Hear Me?"
That's when fraudsters fake having a headset problem in an attempt to get the unsuspecting person on the phone to say "yes" on a recorded line - a response that can then be edited and used as phony proof of purchases in the future.
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