Janet N. Cook, 76, was duped by a dashing younger man. A report at nytimes.com explains that in July 2011 she connected with Kelvin Wells via a dating site.

Next thing, this seemingly-together man was in trouble and needed lots of money. Cook got burned; she sent the crook nearly $300,000 (amazing; just try to get a friend to give you $100).

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center warns:

• If that wonderful man (or woman) sounds too good to be true and speaks poetically, e.g., “We were meant to be together,” run for the hills.
• If they claim they love you, can’t live without you, etc., come on, this should turn you OFF, not ON.
• Be suspicious of those claiming they’re originally from the U.S. but are now overseas or are entrenched in some heavy business or family situation.
• Be leery of those insisting, very early on, that all communications be done via e-mail, phone or instant message (to avoid detection by the dating site).
• If they claim they need you to send money for their travel expenses to meet you, make like an airplane and drop the bomb on them.
• Older women are typical targets due to their accumulated wealth.

It’s a numbers game for these smooth-talking scammers. They keep hunting ‘til they find that lonely, vulnerable victim, usually a woman living by herself who becomes enthralled at all the gushy e-mails and phone calls from Mr. Dashing. He may have told his sob story to 500 women just to land one victim, but for $300,000, it’s time well spent.

According to the IC3, about 6,000 people reported such scams between July 1 and December 31 of 2014.

Is this $300,000 an anomaly? The nytimes.com article tells of a woman in Pensacola, Florida who gave her swindler $292,000.

Victims aren’t necessarily uneducated. The article cites Louise B. Brown, a nurse from Vermont, who’d been scammed. Brown, 68, met Thomas on Match.com. He was about to leave for Malaysia (typical story; originally from the U.S. but currently living in or about to travel to a foreign land—HUGE red flag!). She sent Thomas $60,000 and ate up her savings. These guys must be good; where do they find such vulnerable victims?

Really, the rule is simple: If the guy asks you for money, drop him. End of story. But by the time these clever crooks tell you they’ve been robbed by bandits in a remote Southeast Asian village, the victim is already under his spell—but there were warning signs before even that happened (see above bullet list).

It took only three weeks for Betty L. Davies of Georgia to fall under the spell of Donald Leo Moore. Davies, 62, gave him a whopping amount of money after he claimed he’d been robbed while in Malaysia. Then his chemical engineering project ran into trouble and she gave him $20,000. He then needed $30,000 thanks to Singaporean officials. Total money lost: nearly $300,000.

“Script” of the Scammer

• Build victim’s trust
• Create sense of urgency

If Mr. Dashing has any of the aforementioned traits, immediately report him to law enforcement, even if you know the truth: That your lent money is gone forever.

Prevent Getting Scammed

• I’m going to play psychologist here and ask you why you’d want to get involved with a man who travels. Think of all the hardships this would bring to a relationship. One of the common denominators in scammers is that they claim they’re overseas or will soon be going there.
• Psychologist again: Lower your standards. MUST he have a glamorous job like international relations, foreign road construction or cruise ship engineering? MUST he type and speak like a poet? Swindlers will present themselves as very accomplished and above the common man.
• MUST you equate constant attention from Mr. Dashing with compatibility and honesty? Cook was hooked by Kelvin’s constant attention.
• MUST you travel to the Bahamas and Bermuda to be happy? Brown’s scammer promised her trips there.
• Right-click on the man’s profile image to see where else online it shows up.
• If his verbiage sounds canned, paste it into the search engine to see if it appears on romance scam sites.
• Immediately alert the dating site when a suitor asks for money.

Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert to BestIDTheftCompanys.com discussing identity theft prevention.

Companies that want to employ at-home workers for their call centers to save money and reduce the hassles of office space have to look at security considerations. In addition to thorough vetting of the agents and their equipment, organizations also need to ensure that the security is top-notch. A cloud-based contact center combats these issues. Here are some considerations:

• Will it anger customers to have an agent who can’t speak clear English? Not only does poor speech of the employee drive some customers away, it also concerns customers who are accessing their data over seas.

When choosing an outsourcer, organizations look for important factors including: (1) agent language capabilities, (2) security capabilities, and (3) financial stability of the outsourcer. – Study conducted by Ovum

• There comes a point where businesses need to put customer comfort first, especially when it comes to security, such as in the case of healthcare and financial concerns—more complex issues. “Homeshoring” eliminates the awkwardness that sometimes arises when someone is trying to bushwhack through the broken English of the customer support. Though homeshoring will cost companies more, this will be offset by lower turnover rates, small learning curve and a higher rate of first-call resolution.
• Telecommuters (agents) should be screened vigorously, including (as a minimum) a background check for Social Security Number, criminal history and citizenship.
• Then, a contract should be drawn up that should include an agreement to customer confidentiality as well as learning specifications.
• A system should allow the customer to enter, via phone keypad, sensitive information such as credit card number—but without the agent seeing this entry.
• Sessions between agents and customers can be infringed upon by hackers who want to gain access or snoop, creating a need for an end-to-end security system.
• Zero-day attacks, which give hackers access, are a big threat. To prevent this, companies must have regularly updated and patched-up systems.
• A firewall is a must, for server protection and back-end systems.
• Also a must is two-factor authentication. This superb verification method includes the factor of device location and other identifiers. An agent must have a way of receiving a one-time code sent by the company to gain access to a critical system. A hacker, for instance, won’t be in possession of an agents cell phone to receive the texted code.
• In tandem with two-factor authentication, the cloud service should require a very uncrackable password so that only at-home agents can gain access. A strong password is at least eight characters (preferably 12) and contains caps and lower case letters, plus numbers and other characters like #, $ and @.
• Cloud services should be 100 percent PCI Level 1 compliant. To enhance security, have a minimum of two PCI-compliant data centers.

Offshoring and outsourcing for call center agents places an even higher demand for security—which is already greatly needed by virtue of the at-home, virtual workplace. When choosing an outsourcing solution consider all of the above. Ask lots of questions and get quality references.

Robert Siciliano is a Personal privacy, security  and identity theft expert to Arise discussing identity theft prevention. 

Bad guys hacked bad guys. Hmmm, whose side should we take?

Ashleymadison.com got hacked. This site helps and suggests married people cheat. The hack threatens millions of users, potentially revealing their credit card information, addresses, real names, pictures and content of their chat logs.

This dating site has 37 million users and is owned by Avid Life Media. Their other sites, Established Men and Cougar Life, were also hacked.

The hackers responsible call themselves The Impact Team. They object strongly to Ashleymadison.com and had threatened to release all the hacked data unless the site closed down.

The Impact Team is especially unnerved over the site’s Full Delete service that supposedly wipes clean a customer’s profile and everything associated for $19. The Impact Team alleges that Ashleymadison.com took the money but did not delete, retaining clients’ credit card information, names and addresses.

The site denies the claims and is offering the deletion service for free. It’s also fighting to get the millions of personal data pieces removed from cyber space. If it’s already been exposed… too late.

Sounds like some spuses are going to get the frying pan for sure.

The Hacking Team might sell all this personal data for a lot of dough, but that’s a rumor. Either way, the customers are surely shaking in their boots.

A similar thing happened with another site called Adult Friend Finder. Recently, the sex life of its nearly four million users was revealed—purchased underground for $16,800.

What do these recent hacking incidents teach us? Not to cheat? Well, maybe, but more so that you risk a lot by putting your identity and other sensitive information online. Online services cannot guarantee protection from hackers. Maybe Ashleymadison.com’s customers should have used a virtual credit card number, but that wouldn’t have kept other sensitive information concealed.

Had this site used encryption, the hackers would have seen nothing but a bunch of garbled characters: zero value. But most sites don’t use encryption. And when they do, it’s often crackable.

Some sites, like Ashley Madison, have a privacy flaw: If someone knows your e-mail, they can find out if you’re registered with the site because its password reset requires only the e-mail.

If you don’t want anyone to know you have an account with a site, then create an e-mail just for that site. But that’s only one small thing you can do. Your private information may still get hacked into and revealed to the world.

Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert to BestIDTheftCompanys.com discussing identity theft prevention.

Editor’s Note: In this week’s guest blog security expert Robert Siciliano explains how to protect your IT systems and your business from hardware failure. To learn more, download our new e-book, “5 Things Small Businesses Need to Know about Disaster Recovery.”

It is September and that means National Preparedness Month: an ideal time to get involved in your community’s safety. Make plans to stay safe, and this includes keeping ongoing communications alive. National Preparedness Month culminates September 30th with National PrepareAthon! Day.

I can’t believe that people who heavily rely on a computer for business will still suddenly report to clients, “My computer crashed; can you resend me all the files?” What? Wait!

Why aren’t these people backing up their data on a frequent basis? If your computer is central to your business you should back up your data a minimum of once a day to protect against the following threats:

• Computer hack
• Unintentional deletion
• Theft
• Water or fire damage
• Hard drive crash

To make daily data backups less daunting, carefully sift through all of your files to rid old, useless ones and organize still-needed ones. A mess of files with a common theme all over the desktop can be consolidated into a single folder.

Protecting your data begins with keeping your computer in a safe, secure, locked location, but this is only the first (and weakest) layer of protection. The next step is to automatically back up data to the cloud. The third layer is to use local backups, ideally use sync software that offers routine backups to multiple local drives. It’s also important to use antimalware security software to prevent attacks from hackers.

Additional Tips for Small Businesses Make de-cluttering a priority by deleting unnecessary digital files. This will help the computer run faster and help your daily backups run more quickly. Take some time to sift through your programs and delete the useless ones.

It’s also a good idea to clean up your disk regularly. Windows users can find the disk cleanup tool by going to the Performance Information and Tools section under the Control Panel.

Go to the control panel and hit “Hardware and Sound.” Then click “Power Options.” Choosing the recommended “balanced” power setting will benefit the hard drive.

Every two to three years, reinstall your operating system to keep your hard drive feeling like a spring chicken.

The prevention tactics above apply to businesses and really, everyone. Employees should be rigorously trained on proactive security and tricks that cyber thieves use. To learn more about preparing your small business against the common accidents of everyday life, download Carbonite’s e-book, “5 Things Small Businesses Need to Know about Disaster Recovery.”

#1 Best Selling Author Robert Siciliano CSP, CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com is a United States Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla Staff Officer of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security whose motto is Semper Paratus (Always Ready). He is a four time Boston Marathoner, Private Investigator and is fiercely committed to informing, educating, and empowering people so they can be protected from violence and crime in the physical and virtual worlds. As a Certified Speaking Professional his “tell it like it is” style is sought after by major media outlets, executives in the C-Suite of leading corporations, meeting planners, and community leaders. 

Once you become active online…and especially once you become “connected” with a smartphone…your privacy will be in sizzling hot demand—and in fact, you can bet that as you read this, it is already being invaded in ways that you couldn’t possibly imagine. Here are some of those ways, provided by wired.com:

1. Someone could be collecting information on you via a keylogger: It’s a little tool that records your keystrokes, that someone secretly inserts into your computer. A keylogger, however, can also be deposited by malware that you unknowingly downloaded.
2. Tracking technology that retailers use. You are in a large department store and must pass through several departments to get to the one you want. Your smartphone is connected during this time. The tracking technology scans your face (or maybe it doesn’t) and connects with your phone, identifying you as a potential customer for the goods that are in the departments you are passing through or near to. Next thing you know, you are getting hit with ads or e-mails for products that you have no interest in.
3. Video surveillance. This is old as far as the technology timeline, but it is still a favorite among all sorts of people including those with twisted minds. Video cameras can even be hidden in your front lawn. They can also be found at ATMs, placed there by thieves, to record users’ PINs as they punch them in.
4. E-mail monitoring. Your e-mails could be being monitored by a hacker who has remote viewing capabilities of your computer (because you unknowingly let in a virus).
5. Personal drones—those small-enough-to-by-held-by-a-child aircraft that are remote controlled; they can be equipped with cameras to take pictures of you, and they can even follow you around.
6. Public WiFi. Snoops and hackers can eavesdrop on your unsecured WiFi internet with the right hardware and software. Use Hotspot Shield to encrypt your data.
7. And in addition to these ways your privacy could be invaded, a hacker could be spying on you through the little Webcam “hole” above your computer screen (a piece of masking tape over it will solve that problem).
8. Peeping Tom. And of course, there is the old fashioned way of intruding upon someone’s privacy: stalking them (on foot or via car), or peering into their house’s windows.
9. Reverse peephole. A person could tamper with a peephole on a house’s front door, apartment door or a hotel door, then be able to see what’s going on inside.
10. Remote access technology can be malware installed on your device designed to extract all your sensitive data. Make sure to keep your devices security software updated.

You’ll probably be shocked to learn that last year, thousands of cars with keyless entry technology were stolen in London, says a report from wired.com.

But fact is, the more connected a vehicle is to the cyber world, the more hackable the vehicle is—and the hack could be to steal the vehicle or hurt the owner.

Rule: Anything that’s connected, especially via WiFi can be hacked.

The article notes that recently, a Jeep Cherokee was hacked with a smartphone via its Internet-connected navigation and entertainment system; the hackers remotely took control of its steering and brakes while it was on a road.

But don’t panic yet; it was an experiment conducted by good-guy hackers to demonstrate the vulnerability of a connected vehicle. The flaw was corrected after Chrysler recalled 1.4 million vehicles.

But what about getting into keyless-entry vehicles? A device is sold online for $31 that can clone the “key.” The wired.com article notes that BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Saab and Land Rover are among the models at risk.

The thief plugs this device into the vehicle’s diagnostic port. The information collected is then used to reprogram a blank fob that can start the vehicle—after the thief smashes a window to get in.

To deal with this, car makers are trying to create a key whose signal is harder to copy. Security experts point out that vehicles need additional layers of protection such as encrypted communication between them and the Internet.

The Jeep mentioned above was hacked via its navigation and entertainment system, forced to go into a ditch. But another thing a hacker could do is spoof the GPS signals that emanate from satellites, and transmit altered directions to the driver, making that person go way off course. Imagine someone doing this as revenge, perhaps on his nasty boss from work.

Or they can sit back and laugh while they create traffic jams. But it won’t just be fun and games for all hackers. Imagine what terrorists or psychopaths could do. And it’s all very possible. University of Texas researchers actually steered a super yacht off course, unknown to its captain.

Hacking into cars will be even more feasible as cars become closer to being driverless, because this feature will be dependent upon being connected.

Pay close attention to any manufacturer recalls or updates that may involve a patch to correct any vulnerabilities.

Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert to BestIDTheftCompanys.com discussing identity theft prevention.

Catfishing is when someone creates a phony online account—and not necessarily to scam someone for financial gain. An article on vice.com tells all about a person who’s been catfishing for eight years.

She started in middle school by creating “Joey” on MySpace. She then commented, as “Joey,” on her real MySpace page to make herself appear that some cool kid named Joey thought she was pretty.

She got older and didn’t have friends. Don’t blame her for this. Her mother was an addict and father behind bars. She wanted friends, but years of abuse impaired her ability to integrate with people—as herself.

So she created more fake accounts, to create the self she wanted to be. She snatched photos of a cool-looking girl on MySpace and created an account for “Amanda Williams.” The common name would make detection of catfishing impossible.

Because Amanda’s photo was stunning and her account presented with confidence, many people began adding her and sending flattering messages and friend requests.

Our girl here spent loads of free time on social media, constructing Amanda’s life. (Can you see how it’s believable that many adults do this with Facebook? There’s even a site where you can hire a Photoshop specialist to alter and beautify your headshot for only five bucks, and shop you onto a galloping horse or a sailing boat.)

One day our girl, posing as Amanda, messaged a classmate that Amanda liked her, figuring that this would get out and make the other kids think she was cool if Amanda liked her.

But she got busted because it was discovered that Amanda’s phone number was the same as hers.

Then she was hooked on catfishing, and this awful experience only taught her to be more cunning. So she created a new account—with the same photos used for Amanda Williams (not a bright idea), but she blocked her classmates.

After ninth grade, she was transferred to a vocational school due to bullying. All free time was spent on social media doing you-know-what.

More clever this time, she gradually added about 150 “filler friends” to make the account look legitimate, then began adding desired friends. She’d steal photos from Facebook and then block that person’s friends to avoid getting busted.

She then created subaccounts to add to the authenticity. This was done by taking Instagram videos and posting to Facebook. She used Photoshop to fake the “proof” signs.

The phony Amanda Williams account, studded with stolen photos, backstories and fake friends, made our unfortunate girl feel validated. But to her, the fake friends of Amanda Williams were real enough to “speak” to. Those made-up friends cared about her. They were more real to her than people in real life who didn’t care.

She even managed to lasso a cyber relationship through Amanda Williams, but her conscience won out and she fessed to the young man the truth. He vanished after that. But it haunts her because she wonders if she could have accomplished this without Amanda.

She admits to being addicted to catfishing for attention, which has prevented her from working on relationships with real people in person. She’s created more than 20 fake accounts thus far, excluding the subaccounts, which perhaps total 200. But she claims all of this has been therapeutic, though at the same time, heartbreaking.

Today she’s 21 and still friendless in real life. She’s never been employed. But she admits to how wasteful this addiction has been. She hardly leaves the house due to social anxiety; her reality is inside her computer.

She’s in therapy, though, and only one of the fake accounts is active. She can’t part with it. “My existence hinges on this fake account,” she says in the vice.com article. She raised Amanda as her child, giving her new hairstyles, even. Amanda grew up, but her creator is still crippled inside a cocoon.

Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert to BestIDTheftCompanys.com discussing identity theft prevention.