WFHB

The scammers are working faster than the health authorities — fake messages and phone calls from phony “contact tracers” are trying to steal your identity…and maybe your money, too. Here’s how to recognized the crooks.

Google recently discovered 25 nasty apps that had been in their Play Store quite awhile and downloaded 2 million times. Find out if you got one of these! And here’s a wonderful resource from the Federal Trade Commission to help you identify all the current Covid-19 con games.

Phone scammers who threaten you are now insisting you don’t hang up until you send the money; people have been getting mysterious packets of seeds in the mail, and phone apps from Presidential campaigns have big differences. Three things to watch out for!

Digital Assistants can be anywhere, are getting to be everywhere, and can be turned on when nobody realizes it. Ordinary language mistaken for a “wake word” can mean your privacy has just disappeared. Here’s what to watch out for. [English Majors: I dangled that participle deliberately. So there.]

An outfit called the “Freedom To Breathe Agency” is distributing official-looking but totally bogus cards that claim the bearer is exempt from facemask requirements. Don’t accept them, don’t use them, and beware of anyone who does!