Spam email and phone calls, as well as computer attacks, are numerous these days. Anyone can be a target and become a victim if they let their guard down.
Many professionals are ready to give cybersecurity advice, especially for seniors who might be easily tricked.
Kevin Pope, a Texas IT professional, says a person has five minutes to stop and think. A big part of stopping the threat, he stresses, is understanding the tactics of how these scammers approach a target, normally through a phone call or email.
"They're doing something to raise an alert. A pop-up on your computer is screaming, 'Alert, alert, alert. You need to call Microsoft now, call this phone number, or your computer is going to lose all this data.' Or they call you on the phone, and they say, 'This is the IRS, and you need to pay us right now.' That kind of thing,” Pope says.
The purpose of those tactics is to "scare you" into a quick reaction, he explains, so the best defense is to not panic and not react.
Pope also offers advice for caregivers of elderly people.
"Maybe stick a note on the side of the computer screen that just says, 'Any problems, call this phone number.' Make sure that they know that they have someone they can call if they feel like they've got legal problems," he advises. "
Pope also points to a big issue now: the use of AI for voice simulation in phone calls. That newer tactics deserves attention, too, he said.
