Aug. 5, 2025

Phishing and smishing continue to be a problem

Phishing and smishing continue to be a problem

It is time to talk about “phishing” because a friend recently fell for a phishing scheme. The email, which appeared to come from his cable company, claimed that the method of payment was rejected. And while we are at it, let’s talk about “smishing”, a social engineering attack using fake text messages to trick people into sending money to cybercriminals, sharing sensitive information, or downloading malware.

Let’s Talk About Scams is broadcast live Tuesdays at 8AM PT on K4HD Radio - Hollywood Talk Radio (www.k4hd.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Let’s Talk About Scams TV Show is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).

Let’s Talk About Scams Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this podcast is intended for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for individual professional / legal advice. The podcast information was carefully compiled from vetted sources and references; however, R.O.S.E. Resources / Outreach to Safeguard the Elderly cannot guarantee that you will not fall victim to a scam.

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WEBVTT

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This program is designed to provide general information with regards

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to the subject matters covered. This information is given with

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the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station

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are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial, legal, counseling,

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professional service, or any advice. You should seek the services

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of competent professionals before applying or trying any suggested ideas.

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The information contained in this podcast is intended for informational

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purposes only and is not a substitute for individual professional

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legal advice. The podcast information was carefully compiled from vetted

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sources and references. However, Rose Resources outreach to safeguard the

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elderly cannot guarantee that you will not fall victim to

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a scam. Let's talk about scams. It's the must listen

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show for anyone who wants to protect themselves and their

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loved ones from scams. Every twoesdayday at eight am Pacific

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time on K four HD Radio, Joyce Petrowski, founder of Rose,

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and her guests will provide valuable insights and practical tips

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on how to recognize and protect yourself from scams.

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And now here is your host, Joyce Petrowski.

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Good Morning, everybody, welcome to let's talk about scams. I

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am Brian Watson. I am a community outreach specialist for Rose.

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I have been filling in for Joyce and I've really

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enjoyed it. Joyce will be back in two weeks, that's

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the plan. So she's given me the microphone and letting

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me tell some fraud prevention tips with everybody out there.

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So thanks for tuning in today. Today's message is phishing

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and smishing continue to be a problem, so we're kind

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of getting back to the basics here today. Fishing and

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smishing are the two scams that we see on a

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daily basis. If you have a computer, and you have email,

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and you have a cell phone, you are being bombarded

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daily by phishing and smashing. So we're going to talk

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about both of them today, both the two scams, and

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I'm gonna show some examples as well. Because we've talked

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about a lot of really complex stuff, things like cryptocurrency

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and pig butchering and account takeovers and malware and all

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these like big words, but today we're going to get

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back to the basics. Fishing and smishing have been around

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for a long time. So remember phishing is via email

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and think of it as a phony email. The phishing

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emails try to trick you into thinking you are dealing

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with a company that you know, like a large company,

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a store, or a service, or a government agency. So

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I want to tell you a story about a scam

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that recently happened to a friend of mine. He received

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an email purporting to be from Exfinity, and it sounded

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very legitimate. It looked legitimate. It had the Exfinity logo,

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and it said your your payment was rejected. And you

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know a lot of people use a credit card or

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a bank account to make that automatic payment every month,

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which is what we recommend. We're not fans around here

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of writing checks unless you absolutely have to. And it

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said click on this button to update your payment information.

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So one, if we could pull that first slide number

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one up, please This is an example of the actual well, actually,

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this is the actual email. See how the Exfinity logo

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looks good and it says action required update your payment information.

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Your payment was rejected and if you want to keep service,

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update payment information. Seems pretty legitimate, right, No, no, no,

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this is a phishing email. That purple button right in

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the middle is something you never want to click on.

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And my friend clicked on that button and it asked

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him to start putting in credit card information, which he did,

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and when I found out about it, I said, you

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need a new credit card because your credit card just

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got compromised. This is a classic phishing email. I received

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the same one a couple days later. One of the

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things you can do I'm not going to do right here,

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but if you see what I've done with my mouse,

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I don't know if it's showing, but if I were

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to hover my mouse over that button, not click on it,

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but hover only, it'll show the actual website it's going to.

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It's not Exfinity. So this is a classic phishing email.

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So why does this scam work? Well, it works because

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most people, responsible, responsible adults, pay their bills in a

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timely manner and quickly. So my friend pays his bills

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every month on time, trust me. And you know he

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was busy doing stuff. He saw this. He wanted to

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just take care of his obligations. He clicked on it,

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so you could see how anybody could fall for this.

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So I'm showing you this not to embarrass my friend,

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but to it's a lesson for all this So what happens.

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So if you click on a link like this, my

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friend was asked to fill in credit card information, but

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they could also ask for things like your social Security number,

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your date of birth, passwords, user names, other financial information.

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And these sophisticated criminals could also install malware, which is

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malicious software or spyware on your computer without knowledge, and

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they could use that to commit identity theft. They could

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use that to get all of your passwords, all your

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bank account information. So it's very you've got to be

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very careful. And here's the other thing. I'm holding up

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my phone here. If you get an email like this

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from Infinity or Amazon or something similar, don't use this.

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This is far too small. The screen is too small.

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You can't see what's going on. Only do this stuff

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from your home computer where you have a big screen.

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So we've basically come to the point where you have

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to assume every email you receive is a scam. I

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don't like living in a world like that, but that's

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the world we live in. I mean, I can get

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on the computer right now and have something delivered this

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afternoon or tomorrow at the latest, anything I want, pretty much.

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But the downside is the criminals can use that information

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as well. All right, So here's some common sense tips

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on phishing. Re exist the urge to act quickly. See

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this email in front of us. It says it's got

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ale exclamation point, and they're threatening to shut you off

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within twenty four hours. You never have to rush. Read

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the email carefully, look for typos, look for incorrect grammar.

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Scammers want to use urgency. That's how they get you

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to make a bad decision. My friend made a quick,

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rash decision and cause an inconvenience. Go for a break,

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Take a break, go for a walk. Look at the

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email the next day, ask someone else, and I'll mention again.

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Just don't use your cell phone. The screen's too small.

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Look carefully at the email address, and that's why you

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need to use a big computer, because you can't. Usually

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you can't do this on your cell phone. Look at

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the email where it came from. And I'm going to

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show you an example next. So one can we go

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to slide too. This is an Exfinity email that I

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also received. It was similar and I only highlighted or

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only copied a small portion of it. It says from Exfinity.

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But look at the email I copied customer service at

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wosanitation dot com. That's not coming from Exfinity. That is

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a complete scam. And then look at even the title

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of this email. The subject line deadline looming your financial

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commitment is due. Does that sound like Exfinity would write that. No,

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that's probably written by someone living in a foreign country

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English second language. And there's some weird font issues there too,

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that the eyes are too big. There's some goofy stuff

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going on. But classic fishing email. Anytime you have these

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phishing emails, don't click on the links. That's what gets

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you in trouble. We never click on links. Okay, So

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what is what is the safest option? If you're not sure,

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just delete it? Okay? You know what's the worst thing

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that could happen your email? I mean your cable could

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be shut off, But and that's not going to happen

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because the whole thing's a scam. So what you want

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to do if you're not sure and you want to

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sleep at night and you're worried your your cables can

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be shut off, contact Exfinity or whatever company directly, and

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you never use the number that the scammers provide because

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you're going to end up talking to a scammer sitting

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in a call center somewhere. You go on the internet

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and find Exfinity's legitimate site on your own expinity dot

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com or whatever it is, contact customer service and see

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if there's an issue with your account. You can also

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log into your account using your username and password, and

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again never use a link provided by a phishing email,

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and you can log in and see what's going on,

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you know. And for example, when we always talk about

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verified numbers, Let's say you got an email and it

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claimed to be from your bank, so I bek it

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Wells Fargo. And if I got an email saying there

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was something wrong with my account, update my information. Nope,

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I delete it. What I do? I flip over my

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ATM card here, I call the service customer service number

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right on the back. That's a legitimate number we always

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call from verified numbers. And then I know, Joyce and

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I beat this like a dead horse. But you got

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to have a phone a friend. Who is your phone

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a friend? Everyone's sitting here right now listening watching our

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radio show this morning. Who is your phono friend? Is

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it a family member, is it a friend, is it

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a neighbor? You know, when you get a phishing email

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and you're not sure who would you talk to. Sometimes

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phone a friend might be the local police department, you

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know what. They would rather help you out and prevent

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you from getting scammed than try to track down money

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later on. But and you also have someone who's very

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tech savvy. Hopefully your phono friend is tech savy, but

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sometimes they're like two different people. When I was doing

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fraud prevention presentations twenty years ago, phishing was in its infancy,

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but a lot of the phishing emails were really, really bad.

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They were almost like a joke, you know, it was

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almost comical how bad they are. But with artificial intelligence

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and with criminals being more organized and sharing information, these

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phishing emails look more and more legitimate. The problem of

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phishing is only going to get worse before it gets better.

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I want to show you another phishing email, number three,

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please one. This one purports to be from Norton LifeLock,

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and the scammers basically just copied the image from Norton

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LifeLock and put it on there. Dear customer, your subscription

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is set to renew today and it's going to charge

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you over five hundred dollars So this is a classic

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fishing email. They want you to panic and say I

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didn't order a five year Norton LifeLock renewal. That's ridiculous.

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I need to cancel it right away. And the scammers

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are so nice they provide a phone number for you. Well,

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what happens when you call that phone number, you're calling

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a scammer. Okay, what we do is we delete this

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email and you contact Norton LifeLock or contact Norton LifeLock

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and make sure it's it's to reassure yourself that it

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was a phishing email. We never call the number. I

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was over at my mom's house helping her with her

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email the other day. I went into her email account

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and she had about ten emails just like this from

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all different companies. These the scammers are sending these things

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out in the thousands, if not millions. And then I

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have one more phishing email. I want to show you

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slide for please one. So this is one a phishing

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email that purports to be from Social Security Administration. And

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look at this, it's real nice. Your social Security statement

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is streamlined and easier to read than ever before. We

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encourage you to view your statement once a year. Sounds legitimate.

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The government is here to serve you and help you out. Unfortunately,

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this is a phishing email. Don't click on that blue

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link at the bottom. You're falling right into the trap

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of a scammer. What we do is we delete this,

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go directly to SSA dot gov and either log in

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or talk to someone. This is a complete scam. And

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just think about this. The scammers send thousands of these emails,

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millions of these emails, and they only need to get

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lucky one percent of time or zero point one percent

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of the time, and they're going to make money. And

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then one other clue here, look where it's from Social

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Security statement and the email is no reply at Greek

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coproad dot com. That is not Social Security Administration. All right,

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So next we are going to be talking about texting.

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There is a new text now where criminals claim you

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owe money for unpaid road tolls and they're pretending to

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be state agencies and they send text message is demanding money,

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and they don't ask for a lot of money. It's

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usually a small amount of money. So these text messages

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are a form of what we call smishing, a social

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engineering attack using fake text messages to trick people into

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sending money to cyber criminals, trick you into sharing personal

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information or downloading malware. So why do we call it smishing?

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So a text message is an SMS, a short message service,

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that's the technical word for it. So instead of calling SMS,

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we call it smishing, and it rhymes with phishing. So

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smashing is fake text messages. So next slide one, please,

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this is an example of a text, a smishing text

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that claims to be from the Arizona Department of Transportation.

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Little side note, in Arizona, we don't have any toll roots,

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so that's the number one clue. But look at this.

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This is a classic smishing email. You have an outstanding toll.

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If you don't pay it by the end of March,

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you will be penalized subject to legal action. And look,

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they even send you a little hyperlink to pay. It

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looks very legitimate, doesn't it. But do not click on

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that hyperlink. And it's just what we've learned is you

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know this this text works because law buying citizens respond

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to financial inquiries and they always pay their bills. Like

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positive members of society. You know, you get a bill,

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you pay it. We're not dead beats, you know, so

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resist the urge to pay it quickly. Procrastinators don't get

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scammed and stuff like this. The people that get scammed

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or the people that just do things quickly because they

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want to just get stuff done, resist that urge. If

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you receive one for another state, delete the text message,

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contact the state directly, or better at just ignore it

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because you know this is a scam. And again, like

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phishing emails, in texts, texts, you know this mishing text

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we never click on links, okay, And you know I

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talked about phishing not using the phone. The problem with

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text messages is you have to use your phone, So

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just don't click on links. Delete, delete, delete. You know,

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this scam is believable because a lot of Arizona residents

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have another house in another state where they travel. You know,

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we're a very mobile population here in Arizona. So I

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recently read a news story and on this scam. There's

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an estimated sixty thousand domains relating connected associated with these

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tole scams. So that means there's sixty thousand domains sending

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these things out. So if you haven't received one, you will.

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And here's the thing too, it's going to change. Two

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months from now, they'll be at something very similar and

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trying to trick you into sending information. So the key

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is is to be very, very skeptical of any text

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message you receive. All right, I have one last slide

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today that one's going to bring up. It's our sixth

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and final one, and this one is looks real simple

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text message, Dad, text me asap. It's urgent. I broke

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my phone and there's a phone number to call. This

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is basically a variation of the grandparents scam, but in

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this case it's just targeting the parents. So let's say,

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you know, I have a son who's got a phone,

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and let's say he he broke his phone. It crashed,

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he dropped it in the water. Bad happened, and he

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basically was just borrowing someone's phone to get in touch

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with me. You you, you just got to ignore this.

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This is a complete scam. Okay. You know, if if

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the kid really needed to get a hold of you,

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your son or daughter, they would they would call. But

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if you see something like this, you just resist the

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urge because I know how hard it is. Everyone in

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the world wants to protect their family members. Do not

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click on this if if you click on that link

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there and text back, they're going to start a whole series,

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a whole scam that they've used on other people that's worked.

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There's all kinds of things they could do well. Won't

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get into it today, but so just remember some closing

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stuff about text messages. If if you receive an email,

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text message, or phone call, you have to ask yourself

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could this be a scam? Are they targeting me? Only

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respond if you're one hundred percent sure that it's legitimate.

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Never hurts to get a second opinion, ask a family

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member or friend. Just just get a second opinion, because

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remember time is our friend when it comes to scam prevention.

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Scammers want us to make a rush decision. You know,

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in the toll scam that we talked about, I've seen

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versions of it where they threaten people with a large

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fee if they don't pay on time, and a lot

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of victims will just pay the small amount just to

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make the problem go away. But here's the deal. The

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problem doesn't go away. Now they have your credit card information,

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they can charge you a whole bunch of money. Remember

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to please go to Rosadvocacy dot org and sign up

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for our free monthly email. There's our email address right there.

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Have your friends and family sign up. We want to

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get lots of people signed up. It doesn't cost us

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any more money to send out more of our monthly

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email than it does if we send one or if

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we send ten thousand. So please please please sign up

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and also go to Facebook. Follow us on Facebook, follow

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us on LinkedIn. Next week, August twelfth, will be my

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last guest hosting for a while, and I'm bringing in

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a special guest. I'm actually bringing in a retired FBI

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agent named Martin Helmer. He just joined the advisory committee

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for Rose and we're going to have a little chat

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about scams, especially with technology, things like cryptocurrency, pig butchering,

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romance scams, anything and everything. And I want to get

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his perspective of someone who's worked twenty three years in

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law enforcement, and we're going to talk about reporting crimes,

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reporting losses, why it's important, and things like that. So

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see you all next week, next Tuesday morning, and thank

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you for let's talk about scams.

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Well that's all the knowledge for this episode.

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Tune in every Tuesday at eight am Pacific time on

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KFOURHD Radio at KFOURHD dot com as.

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Joyce explores a variety

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Of knowledge, so you have the power to make scam

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protection your healthy habit and until then, feel free to

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reach out to Joyce and let's talk about scams.