FBI Special Agent Derek Kreitenstein spoke to the crowd attending the Seniors vs. Crime Annual Training session at Rohan Recreation Center on Thursday and warned against three main areas of cyber scamming.
“Florida ranks number two in the country for cyber scams,” said Kreitenstein. “Ten per cent of all the cyber scams reported in this country happen in Florida.” California is number one.
The three main categories of cyber crime are Business and Personal E-mail Compromise, Romance and Non-Delivery of services or products.
Romance scams are a big problem in this area Kreitenstein told the audience. After the laughter subsided Kreitenstein went on to warn the audience that people living in The Villages have been scammed out of all increments of money including one person who has been scammed out of $700,000. The scams are perpetrated by both individuals and groups. They establish an on-line relationship for weeks, months and sometimes years, but eventually they ask for money. The biggest red flag said Kretenstein is the person never being available to meet in person. Women over the age of 60 are by far and away the most scammed group. (Last year, a Water Oak woman sent $20,000 to a man she met on Facebook. You can read more about that HERE.)
Ransomware is another big problem.
The solution according to Kreitenstein is “back up, back up, back up.” He continued “once the Ransomware gets on ahold of your computer, there is really nothing you can do.” He said that the FBI does not support paying for an encryption key, because usually you are never going to get the key.
Cyber Hygiene is very important. Kreitenstein strongly suggest anti-virus software; he uses two on his home computers.
Also, important is updating your software and operating systems. Make sure your home network is secure and be cautious of public networks and wi-fi hot spots. Avoid clicking on links from unfamiliar sources and back up data often.
And as for passwords, Kreitenstein highly recommended that anyone using the following passwords: 123456, password and qwerty should go home and change their passwords.
He commended the Seniors vs. Crime for what they are doing. “Prevention is the key to curbing these crimes,” said Kreitenstein “and groups like yours are a big help.” He said that Cyber Crimes are hard to beat; you stop one thing and they are already figuring out an angle.
If you have a crime or concern to report he encouraged people to go to the Internet Complaint Center, www.ic3.gov. It is an on-line reporting system that helps them spot trends and also to aggregate the information and get it out to all the FBI offices. There is also a lot of good information on the website people can use to avoid being a victim of a cyber crime.
