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Common Cyber Scams That Affect Home Workers

With more and more people working from home these days, depending on where you are of course, the amount of cyber scams that target home workers has also increased. For many people, this new digital work environment is new, and they aren’t used to identifying obvious, and less obvious, attempts at cyber scams. In order to try and help you along, let’s look at some of the common ones that may float through your cyberspace.

Business / IT Email Fraud

Email scams have increased since the start of this whole pandemic, specifically related to business and IT industries. Since many businesses have had to make emergency financial transactions, rushed orders, and cancelled requests. All this new back and forth leads to an opportunity for scam emails to slip in unnoticed, especially since it is difficult for remote workers to get a quick answer from co-workers to verify the legitimacy of said email.

Healthcare Scams

You may have noticed that there is a pandemic currently and that leads to an increase in medical needs. Medical scams have gone up to try and capitalize on people’s fear, and their needs for medical supplies. COVID-19 scams specifically have come out of the woodwork, people receive an email saying they were infected with the virus, or in an infected area, and request your personal information, or to fill out a form.

Assistance Fraud

Some places are receiving government assistance during the pandemic, others are hotly debating it. Whatever the reality is, fraudsters are once again trying to take advantage of the situation. Emails claiming to be registrations and applications for these programs are sent out, getting you to fill in all your details. Then, just like that, they’re able to commit identity theft. It’s important to understand how assistance programs in your area, if any, work, and how they will get in touch with you.

Learn How To Avoid Suspicious Emails

The best way for home workers, and anyone really, to protect themselves from these types of scams is learning to recognize them as they come in. If an email comes in and seems to look weird, don’t respond to it, if you don’t recognize the sender, don’t respond to it. Certainly don’t send back any information, or fill out forms, click any buttons, etc. In fact, if an email looks suspicious or you don’t recognize it, don’t even open it. Get verified if you’re not sure, otherwise feel free to delete right out of hand.

October 4, 2020