5 Online Scams That Target Kids

More and more kids are online these days, and it's getting to the point that computers are the babysitter my TV was for me back in the 80s. While I couldn't get in too much trouble watching TV (except for becoming absolutely CONVINCED by commercials I needed whatever the hot new toy was) there are some important things parents should know about online scams that target children.

From social networking scams to points-shopping sites to Farmville, Parent Central has a good list of what you should be paying attention to when your kids are online.

Seniors Are Biggest Risk for Online Scams

Looks like I wasn't too far off the mark with my self-serving attempts to get my granparents to use Grammarly as a scam detector, because recent reports say seniors are a huge target for online scammers. My grandparents are pretty paranoid, sending me all kinds of stuff they think they're protecting me from, but they don't know much about being online and often their paranoia is misplaced or out of date.

One thing I thought was really interesting? Moving from online scams to telephoning people. From a Canadian report:

In the RCMP's combat against elderly fraud, Corporal Louis Robertson said he sees a lot of grand-parent scams, whereby a fraudster poses as an elderly person’s grandchild over the phone asking for an urgent loan.

Grandma, Grandpa - I promise I'll never phone you at 2 AM looking for a loan, so don't fall for it, eh? Read the full story here.

5 Scams and Security Threats in 2011

I'm trying to get better about posting about scam and security threats I come across, because helping my grandparents out using Grammarly as a scam detector is great, but it's not even a drop in the barrel. So today I'm setting my sights bigger, to the biggest scam and security threats on the horizon in 2011. Of course, I'm no analyst, so I just pulled all the smart stuff from an article on PCWorld so you don't have to take my word for it...

So what're the big things? You can check out the article for the full boat but it seems the big concerns are a mix of the old (fake antivirus scams and PDF-based attacks), the new (App and Social Media scams) and the plain scary (Hacktivism and other war games - probably only a concern for corporations rather than little old me). I covered one Twitter scam last week, and don't be surprised if you see more on the horizon.

The long and short of protecting yourself from these problems seems to be a) use your head, b) make sure you're protected by antivirus, and c) do your research. That's what I'm trying to do, hence this blog, but like I said - check out PCWorld for the full article and more details.

Grammarly Scam Detector Video

So I decided to make a video outlining how I used Grammarly to detect email scams, as I mentioned in my post My Grandparents: Scam Detectives. It's my first-ever online video so be gentle with me.

Update: I've received a lot of great responses on this Grammarly scam tool I recommended to my family. It was a fun process, and I'm glad so many people stumbled across it. As I'm sure everyone knows, scams are only getting more frequent online, so I guess there are a lot of people looking for a solution. While many of us are able to quickly spot and ignore fraudulent 'junk email', there are many others who are new to the Internet who aren't as familiar with these things.

I think, because of this, people 'in the know' are seeking out tools to actually spot and delete this spam/scam stuff automatically for their loved ones. This will leave them less vulnerable to people trying to take advantage of their unfamiliarity with the web. While my little tool is just a prototype of sorts, I think the interest I received from it indicates that there is a gap in the market for a tool that is more than just an email spam filter. Perhaps combining plagiarism analysis with a good spam filter would be a 'best of both worlds'. For now, however, please enjoy the Grammarly scam detector.



Grammarly Scam Detector

Watch Out for Time-Wasting Twitter Scam

Seems like I've only written about Grammarly scam detection at this point - time to broaden my horizons. Just cuz I have a new toy doesn't mean that's the only thing I can write about right?

The latest thing to hit my radar is a Twitter-based scam that claims to tell you how much time you've been wasting on Twitter, and then tricks you into letting a "rogue application" access your Twitter account. Nefarious.

The app then tweets a message onto a Twitter feed, claiming that victims spent 11.6 hours on Twitter, however little or much time they really have logged up on the micro-blogging service before directing victims to a time-wasting survey that earns money for scammers.

The approach is familiar to the wave of survey scam apps that have bedevilled Facebook users for many months but is new to Twitter. Affected users are advised to revoke the application's access to their Twitter account immediately.

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