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However, Rose Resources outreach to safeguard the elderly cannot guarantee that you will not fall victim to a scam.

Let's talk about scams.

It's the must listen show for anyone who wants to protect themselves and their loved ones from scams.

Every Tuesday at am Pacific time on K four HD Radio, Joyce Petrowski, founder of Rose, and her guests will provide valuable insights and practical tips on how to recognize and protect yourself from scams.

And now here is your host, Joyce Petrowski.

Hi, everyone, welcome back.

Joyce Petrowski, founder and board president of Rose Resources Outreach to Safeguard the Elderly, where we have a scam prevention through education platform focused on the older adults.

You can find more information on our website at Roseadvocacy dot org.

On the homepage you'll find all of our social media links and if you scroll down to the bottom, you'll find where you can sign up for our newsletter.

We have one that we send in the mail at the beginning of the month, and then we have one that goes out within the first week of the month via email that has a lot of information on there, and then every two day morning, so yes, that would be this morning in about ten fifteen minutes.

It happens at nine to fifteen Arizona time.

You get a Tuesday tip on the email.

And the nice thing about that is one is it might be something new that you didn't know, so you learned something.

The other thing and probably just as important is going to be even if you already know it.

What it does is it reinforces scam prevention in your mind.

So the next time you're contacted, your more app to pause and think about scams and do your research and due diligence before you interact with the email, the text, the phone call, you know, whatever the messaging, whatever the contact was.

And it also gives you a conversation starter, so you can talk to your family and friends, especially your older adult family and friends.

You know, when you see them, if you go visit them once a week, you talk to them on the phone.

It's a conversation starter where you can have a conversation about scams and how to protect yourself without seeming without making the other person feel defensive by always telling them don't do this, don't do that.

It just talking about it in regular conversation, and it builds your relationship with them and they will be more apt to come talk to you when they do encounter something or maybe if they've accidentally clicked on something they shouldn't have, they're going to be more app to come and talk to you.

So sign up for those newsletters.

So today this is going to be a short show.

I'm going to share my screen.

We were given some information on a couple different scams that were out there and it actually was pretty clever.

So I'm going to share my screen right now and show you what I'm talking about.

Here, I can get to the pdf.

So look at this one.

This is quite interesting.

So this was a text that someone received and you know, it says, hey, with a wavy hand, you know normal, can you help me with this YouTube?

Short video?

Could you please check whether I can promote this one or not?

Now, look at the link that's there, and then it says, okay, thank you.

But look at the link that's there, and I probably should have circled it, but it's right here.

You've got the https, and you've got the two slash marks.

But where's the colon?

If I'm not mistaken, it's https colon backslash, backslash.

And then you start with the you start with the the website name.

Okay, it could be YouTube dot com or Roseadvocacy dot org.

But it's missing the colon in here.

Now, when your eyes look at that, you know that it's https colon backslash, backslash.

So you might not see that that colon's missing.

It's that slight little change that to your naked eye you might not see it, Which is why it's so so important to look at every single letter that's in there and write it out.

You know, if if you're not looking and seeing every little thing, you know, uh, write it out, put your cursor over it, and go okay, that's a y oh you you know, but start here and go h because it should have the HTTP s and the S means it's secure, but the colon is missing.

So anyways, that's something that was texted to, uh, to someone and I'm sure hundreds thousands millions of people are getting this type of text or a text very similar with this type of website where it's not this is actually the whole website, the whole domain name is including this HTTPS in it, So just be careful of that.

And then the other thing that we saw.

And if any of you have been to our presentations that we do, this is one of the things that we talk about and we suggest to people, especially if they're not familiar with the website, or they get an email and they're not familiar with who it came from, or you know.

And I've always used Amazon as an example, but Microsoft fits as well, and this one happens to be.

I don't believe this was an actual email that somebody received, but somebody put it together if my understanding's correct, or maybe it is an actual email.

But anyways, the good thing is is it's here to show you and that we talk about this in the presentation.

So Microsoft, it's a big company, it's a well known company.

Just about everybody knows or has heard of Microsoft.

And yeah, when they send you emails, a lot of times it'll come from a no reply because it's an informational email.

You might have to click on a link within the email, or they have a phone number that you call, you know, whatever it is.

But and this is something we say, look at everything after the at sign because that's the domain.

So you look at this and you you look at it and go, okay, well it's Microsoft dot com.

That's the right one.

But if you look at it really really closely, look at that M right there, you think it's a lowercase M for Microsoft.

It's not.

It's a lowercase R and it's a lowercase N.

And is your naked eye going to see that little space between the R and the N and that right there makes it a totally different domain.

It's not Microsoft.

But if you clicked on a link in here in this email, it would take you to that fake domain that I am guessing is impersonating Microsoft.

So you want to be extremely careful, and even now when I'm looking at it and I have my glasses on, I have to blink a few times because when I first looked at it, I'm like, no, that's an M.

And then I have to get my eyes in focus and really look at it.

And you know, the thing is is, you know what, if you want to go to the Microsoft website and you know it's Microsoft dot com, don't worry about clicking links in a text or an email.

Just go to the Microsoft dot com website.

So if you already know what the website is and you have ordered things from the website, you have a subscription with the website, so it seems reasonable that you would be getting an email from them about something.

This one specifically was a password reset request.

You know, if you've not reset your pat if you have not initiated a password reset on one of your Microsoft accounts, then you can just ignore it.

But if you did, right, go directly to Microsoft dot com and go into your settings to change your password there.

Because it's hard to see it, and like I said, before, my eyes, you know, when I first started looking at this, it looked like a lowercase M.

And you really have to look at it, and I had to blink a few times and you know, make sure my eyes were open wide to look at it and go, yep, no, that's a lowercase R and a lowercase IN.

So be very careful with that.

Some other things that can you know, happen is what about a lowercase L.

Does that look like a one?

What about capital O?

Is that really close to a zero?

Look at Microsoft again?

Here the C and the R, the lowercase C and the lowercase R.

Does that look like a lowercase A.

So there's a lot of different things that you know that can be just tiny little changes that a scammer makes.

And the domains available and they buy the domain and they're impersonating another company just by switching you know, those letters around or a letter for a number, and it makes it so close and so similar that your mind's already thinking Microsoft.

So your eyes are looking at it.

Your mind's thinking Microsoft, So your eyes are telling you it's Microsoft.

Well, no, I really have to look at it and go, am I looking at a lowercase M?

Or is that this?

Or this?

And you really have to look at it to determine what the letters and numbers, capital, lowercase all that are and it's always good to write it down.

Yes, it's going to take you a few extra minutes, but it's going to protect you.

It's going to help protect you from getting onto a malicious website, because that can cause a whole lot of damage.

You get onto a malicious website, and it can cause a lot of damage.

You're clicking on links, it can capture your information, maybe it puts malware on your device, and now the scammers are sitting in the background on your device and you have no idea that they're there, and they're watching everything you do.

And you log into your bank account, Well, now they see what your log in is, right, So you got to be careful.

That's another reason why you need to have very strong antivirus anti malware protection on all of your devices, even your cell phones, because your cell phones are mobile computers, they're connected to the internet, they're mobile computers.

And have that strong antivirus anti malware on your phone as well, because especially on your phone, it's so small, you try to scroll up, you end up clicking on a link you didn't want to click on.

And there's a lot of great antivirus anti malware software out there.

If you have a trusted tech support person, talk to them and find out what they recommend.

They might have one that works really well with Apple.

They might have another one that works really well with Samsung or Android products, or maybe they have one that's just really good all around for desktop laptops, iPads, notebooks, mobile phones.

They might have one that you know, well, there's this little thing in here that you have to be okay with, but it's really really good and very easy to use, right, So do your research and find that and make sure it's on all your devices, because if you clicked on something in one of these malicious emails, there's a good chance that your antivirus anti Maowa is going to recognize it and it's going to warn you.

It's going to say this is a malicious site.

You shouldn't go there, and then you can say okay, and then not go there and then get into the actual legitimate website on your own.

So that's all I have for today.

I told you it was going to be short and sweet today.

Got a lot of work to get back to, so looking forward to talking to you guys next week.

I'm working on having a guest next week to talk about their scam experience and the following week.

It'll either be next week, which I realize is a couple days before Christmas, or it'll be the following week, which is right at the end of the year, but we'll have that guest on and share their experience.

So until next week, don't forget.

You're going to want to click subscribe so you don't miss an episode.

You can also find the shorts and the live videos on our YouTube page, which the links are on our website at Roseadvocacy dot org.

And don't forget to sign up for our emails.

We have one in the mail and one via newsletters.

I mean we have one in the mail and one via email.

They're at the bottom of the homepage.

You can sign up for them.

We're really trying to get our YouTube channel up over one hundred subscribers, so please if you can click on that to subscribe.

My understanding is you're going to get a notice when a new one's coming up and you can be ready for it.

So thank you and we will see you next week.

Well that's all the knowledge for this episode.

Julian Every Tuesday at eight am Pacific time on KFOAHD Radio at KFORAHD dot com as Joyce explores a variety of knowledge, so you have the power to make scam protection your healthy habit, and until then, feel free to reach out to Joyce and let's talk about scams.