Faith-Based Daily Awareness Post 27 February 2024

These updates are shared to help raise the situational awareness of Faith-Based organizations to best defend against and mitigate the impacts from all-hazards threats including physical security, cybersecurity, and natural disasters.

Top 5 Scam Techniques: What You Need to Know

Forta’s Tripwire reports:

“Scammers are increasingly resourceful when coming up with scam techniques. But they often rely on long-standing persuasion techniques for the scam to work. So, you may hear about a new scam that uses a novel narrative, but there is a good chance that the scam relies on proven scam techniques once the narrative is stripped away. These scam techniques often exploit our characteristics and heuristics, or things that make us human and fallible.”

The article provides details of common techniques and what to watch for.

Evoking visceral influence

What to watch for-

How the email makes you feel? Is it stressing you out, or are you excited at the prospect being offered?

Urgency

What to watch for-

Any indication of limited time in the correspondence that indicates you need to act quickly.

Scarcity

What to watch for-

An indication that the offer is a one-time deal or somehow unique and that you will be missing out if you don’t act on it.

Authority

What to watch for-

Pressure to comply with requests from authority sources, especially if there is a threat that non-compliance would lead to arrest or penalties.

Social proof

What to watch for-

Testimonials and recommendations are provided by the offer itself. These include any extremely positive reviews, especially if they are not detailed, as well as testimonials that appear in seemingly unrelated places such as social media pages.

Related Items;

• How to Keep Your Loved Ones Safe From Financial Scams
• 10 things to avoid posting on social media – and why

Analyst Comments:

Being aware of the five often used techniques listed above can help keep Faith-Based Organization members from becoming victims, even when confronted with a new version of scams.

In a related topic, FB-ISAO’s 06 February Faith-Based Daily Awareness Post highlighted an article on Spotting and Reporting Investment Scams Targeting Older Investors.