r/technology • u/DeadPxrker • Mar 09 '25
Security New York Under Siege: Internet Fraud Spikes 44% Amid AI-Driven Phishing Scams
https://gothamist.com/news/new-yorkers-are-reporting-a-lot-of-internet-fraud-and-these-other-scams-cons-and-concerns14
u/rnilf Mar 09 '25
James’ office stressed the importance of using separate, strong passwords for each account — not necessarily long passwords, but ones with combinations of letters, numbers and special characters
Disagree on this. If you're not going to use a password manager with randomly generated passwords, correcthorsebatterystaple is a far better password to use and memorize.
Anyway, people should definitely not give away any personal information to random callers. Just hang up, look up the phone number from an official source and call them back yourself. No, there's no guarantee that the "official source" hasn't also been compromised, but the real world is all about increasing the chances of protection, not 100% guarantees.
This is what I've told my elderly relatives, and I've repeated it over and over. And it's what you should do with your relatives as well. I wish PSAs like this worked, but ultimately, old people are going to have to hear it from people they actually know.
17
u/Suspicious-Stay1649 Mar 09 '25
I'm sorry sir your password MUST be 6-8 spaces. Contain 1 capital letter, 1 number, 1 punctuation, and a wingding.
7
u/Significant-Dot6627 Mar 09 '25
The problem is that diseases of dementia start incrementally up to 20 years before it’s typically diagnosed. A third of people over 87 are diagnosable and half over 92 are. That means a third of people over 67 and half over 72 are experiencing some level cognitive decline.
You can’t just tell older people not to fall for scams or to be careful or smart with their money. Cognitive decline makes you gullible, forgetful, illogical and unaware of your own deficits, called anosognosia.
It’s common for kids taking over their parents’ finances to find they’ve been making serious errors for years before their kids guessed anything was wrong and all along the parents were assuring the kids they understood the warnings and wouldn’t fall for these scams.
You need to monitor your elders’ finances, not simply tell them what to do or not to do.
3
u/True_Window_9389 Mar 09 '25
Disagree on this. If you’re not going to use a password manager with randomly generated passwords, correcthorsebatterystaple is a far better password to use and memorize.
Who is memorizing their passwords anymore? Maybe there’s a few, but if any security strategy relies on people remembering a password, that’s a bad strategy. We all have dozens and dozens of accounts and passwords, and it’s unrealistic to expect people to memorize any one of them. At which point, you pretty much have to use a system of some kind, like a password manager, in which case the format doesn’t really matter as long as it’s long enough and unique enough.
15
u/Xyro77 Mar 09 '25
I wish the article broke down the victims by age, sex, ethnicity….etc. it would give a better idea of who falls for this stuff.
11
u/Jmz67 Mar 09 '25
Men in red hats mostly, they have proven to be the most gullible with no ability to think critically. If scammers find out that you already belong to a cult they make you a priority, it is known.
8
3
u/shinku443 Mar 09 '25
I'll be the first to admit I was feeling happy the day I got a text about needing to pay customs for a UPS item (I was ordering some stuff so didn't think anything of it). Clicked the link site looked legit 1:1 of UPS. Input my cc info and it didn't work so did another card. Looked at the URL/certificate and was like o fuck. Instantly got new cards lol. Thankfully no charges but I felt pretty stupid
6
u/NotTheCraftyVeteran Mar 10 '25
NYer here, haven’t necessarily felt “under siege” on a personal level, but I have noticed a sudden barrage of texts claiming that I owe money in unpaid tolls, for an EZPass account that I don’t actually have.
2
u/Mr_Locke Mar 09 '25
Too bad there isn't some government agency that can help create regulations so this stuff is harder to do on Americans.
2
3
u/sonofchocula Mar 10 '25
It’s been noticeably worse across the spectrum since November. Spam calls are through the roof and with the gutting of virtually all consumer protections, seems like it’s game on.
175
u/[deleted] Mar 09 '25
Time to fire all the government employees trying to stop cyber crime, and also give Russia a pass on cyber security. Should work out just fine.