High Country Times

.Town of Beech Mountain issued the following announcement on Jan. 16.

Town of Beech Mountain Utility Dept. does NOT robo-call! NEVER give out your personal financial information!

Robo-calls, phone calls, internet, email scams coming from criminal actors- Scare tactics include, warning or threats of delinquent bills, asking for money, urgently asking for gift cards, phishing, etc. Do not become a victim of scams, do not follow any directions in an email or phone call!  If you have any questions call Town Hall directly (828) 387-4236. No elected official would ask for money, not the mayor, nor any council member.

Pro tip for spotting Phishing scams: hover over the person’s name and check what the actual recipient’s email address is and you will notice it is not a legitimate address to reply to as it will be an unknown email domain. Usually the grammar will be incorrect or they will use all CAPS to earn trust and imply urgency. Never click on attachments or links, never call the number on the email. Call Town Hall offices directly and follow-up outside of the scam. Email addresses are sold on the ‘dark web’ over and over and that is why emails get hacked. Learn spearing techniques designed to gain trust, such as using your name and address which are public records, they try to personalize emails but it is a scam!

Hacker’s Tools 101: Social Media employs ‘social engineering’ which is the clever manipulation of the natural human tendency to trust.  Never will the IRS, or Amazon, or Apple, or Facebook call you. Never. If it smells fishy, it is! Do not give out your personal information which is the ‘name of your childhood pet, where you were born, the name of your high school, or first car or best friend’s name, or children’s birthdays, etc.,  this is all an attempt to crack your password codes. Never conduct banking on a public Wi-Fi network, this requires your password to access and it is not safe nor secure. Learn cyber-security knowledge and you will protect yourself from becoming a victim. Report a Social Security scam at OIG.SSA.GOV

Original source can be found here.