Security Impersonators

Welcome to The Safety Net, a newsletter that profiles scams and helps you protect your family from them. If you like this issue, please share it with anyone who might like it. Thanks!

Most of us have a deep fear of getting in trouble, and scammers know it. If they can convince us that we’ve done something wrong, they know that we’ll stop thinking clearly and scramble to prove our innocence or right the wrong.

Below is a real scam message received by a Safety Net reader on Facebook Messenger:

It is clearly designed to sound scary, claiming that you are violating copyrights. They want you to act quickly to try and clear things up, since you know you didn’t do anything wrong. The minute you act, the scam has begun. 

Luckily, it’s usually quite easy to spot these scams. In this case, they are using the obviously fake “facebookst0riescompany.com” domain, which uses a zero instead of an ‘o’! Even if they weren’t so blatant, there are clear procedures on most websites that you can find to understand how and when security might contact you. For example, the procedure for handling copyright violations is on the Facebook website and you can read them for yourself. 

Real security teams have better ways of reaching you than sending weird messages in the middle of the night. Often they will contact you via your preferred method of communication, and be able to confirm they know something that a scammer could not know. 

It’s unlikely that security will ever contact you for legitimate reasons. If you get a contact from security, be cautious as it’s more likely to be a scam than anything else.

Join the Sanctum Waiting List! 

We’re in the process of building a suite of tools that will keep you safer online, including protecting you from scams. You can see a quick video about what we’re building, and we’d love for you to join our waitlist for early access if you’re interested.

Quick Tip of the Week: Ask a Friend

Most scams prey on our emotions. Scammers know that if they can make us angry or afraid we won’t think clearly and can more easily fall for their scams. Security scams are a great example of this, making us feel afraid we are in trouble.

A great way to get around these is to ask a friend what they think. Someone else is unlikely to have the same emotional response and can evaluate the message objectively, and in doing so more easily spot scams. Clear thinking is your best defense!

Have you come across a scam recently? Received some weird messages that you think might be a scam? Forward them to [email protected] and we’re happy to help! We’ll take a look and let you know what we think, and if it is a scam we’ll profile it in future issues of The Safety Net to protect others.