Phishing is real...Just ask Shark Tank host Barbara Corcoran.

Shark Tank judge Barbara Corcoran lost nearly $400,000 in an elaborate email scam that tricked her staff.

Corcoran said someone acting as her assistant sent an invoice to her bookkeeper earlier this week for a renovation payment. Staff believed there was "no reason to be suspicious" about the email because she invests in real estate, so the bookkeeper wired $388,700 to the email address. 

The problem was that the email address didn't belong to her assistant. The scammer imitated her assistant's email address and misspelled it with one letter. The mistake wasn't caught until the bookkeeper emailed the assistant's correct address for a follow-up.

Corcoran fell for a phishing scam, which is common: Nearly 30,000 people reported being a victim of that type of scam last year. Together they reported nearly $50 million in losses, according to the FBI's 2018 Internet Crime Report.

Phishing attacks are common methods of stealing usernames, passwords and money. Hackers pretend to be a trustworthy source to convince you to share personal data. To be safe, it's important to make sure the sender is authentic before clicking on a link.

Source: CNN Business

Venmo Scam Alert

If you use the app Venmo, be aware there is a scam going around.

With this scam, you will receive a text message telling you your Venmo account is about to be charged and If you want to cancel the withdrawal, you need to log on and decline it.

The message allows you to log on with any phone number and password. (The password we used to test this scam was wrong, but it had me continue on). It then asks you to verify who you are by entering the bankcard number and other personal/financial info.

The scam uses the same same colors and fonts as the Venmo App.

Do not use the pages provided by the text to enter into your account. Go directly to your Venmo app or use their Internet website.

If you have fallen victim to this scam and entered your personal information, contact your bank or credit card company immediately.

The “can you hear me?” phone scam is back. Here’s how to protect yourself.

Can you hear me? Don’t answer that.

The Better Business Bureau issued a press release yesterday warning the public of an an age-old scam making a comeback.

It’s been deemed the "Can You Hear Me?" scam.

In the past, this scam targeted businesses. The scammer would call - even pretend to adjust the phone or headset - and ask, "Can you hear me?"

The person on the other end would likely say, "Yes, yes, I can hear you."

With this grunt of approval, scammers could twist that around to, "Yes, the nice woman said she’d purchase this bulk of office supplies." Or, "Yes, he wants to buy an ad."

Now the phone scam is back, but it’s targeting individuals. In fact, BBB says more than half of the scams reported through its BBB Scam Tracker in the past few days have been about this one.

This is what happens: Someone calls you and you pick up. Consumers say the calls have been about anything from vacation packages to cruises to warranties.

Then the operator will ask if you can hear them, and you impulsively say "yes." But you haven’t just politely answered their questions. Rather, you’ve committed to something and didn’t even know it.

What to do if you get a "Can you hear me" call:

• If someone you don't know asks "Can you hear me?" don’t say anything. Hang up.

• Stay aware of any other questions to solicit a yes. These scammers are smart; they’ll know the public has caught on and will adjust accordingly.

• Don’t answer a call from an unknown or unfamiliar number.

• Check your bank and credit card accounts on a regular basis.

If you do get a call from someone you think is a scammer, report it to BBB Scam Tracker to help warn others of your experience.

*Source: BBB

Sick of fake news? Here's five tips on how to spot it online.

A growing number of websites are espousing misinformation or flat-out lies, raising concerns that falsehoods are going viral over social media without any mechanism to separate fact from fiction. And there is a legitimate fear that some readers can't tell the difference. A study released by Stanford University found that 82 percent of middle schoolers couldn't spot authentic news sources from ads labeled as "sponsored content."

The disconnect between true and false has been a boon for companies trying to turn a quick profit.
There are more of these sites now because there's an awareness that people can create fake news sites and make money from the ads. A few years ago, we were mostly dealing with people who were misinformed, but not malicious.

The rise of scammers has ensnared two of the world's largest internet companies, Facebook and Google, in controversy over their role in giving fake news such an influential platform.

Here are some tips on how to spot fake news:

1. Stay away from sites with suspicious-looking web addresses, like those ending in .tk, .lo or .co.com.
2. Pay attention to the article's author. If there's no byline on a story, or there is only one author for every post on the entire website, watch out. It may be an imposter.
3. Be wary of news sites that host bloggers without any clear editorial or fact-checking process.
4. Check if there's an "about me" section on the website. This makes it easier to spot whether the news source is legitimate.
5. Get your news from a variety of places. The best way to ensure that you're not scammed by fake news is to read from a diverse array of news sources, and not just what pops up on a Facebook feed.

The Web's newest scam: Jennifer Lawrence nude pictures.

There is a new (true) current event which unfortunately is the ultimate click bait. A hacker got into Apple's iCloud and hacked the account of Jennifer Lawrence and many other celebrities. Apparently, she had taken nude pictures of herself and they are all out there now. You would think these celebs would have learned by now, but no. Apple has patched a bug that would allow brute force attacks on iCloud, and this may have been how the hack was done, or it could be simply a guessed password.

The cyber criminals are already working on campaigns to exploit this event and these are going to be very enticing phishing attacks over the next few months.
 
This weekend, it was all over the news that hackers leaked nude pictures of Jennifer Lawrence and other celebrities. The news is true, and the pictures are out there. The problem is that the bad guys are going to use this to trick people into clicking on links and open attachments, which will infect your computer with malware. Do not get curious and fall for these scams.

How to get rich. Finally, we have the answer!

Ah, the age old question. How does one become rich?

Well…..I hate to break it to you, but if you are reading this because you specifically googled “How to get rich”, I would be happy to sell you some self-help books. Many of the people selling books that tell you “how to get rich” got rich by selling books that tell people “how to get rich”.

First off, I am not rich. That Nigerian Prince never fulfilled his end of the bargain and my “Jump to Conclusions Mat” never took off. (Credit to the movie Office Space).

In all seriousness, some people who go into business for themselves often start with this question. However, I do not believe that many of these folks last long. If becoming rich is your only motivation for starting a business, you are going to be pretty disappointed. Most successful entrepreneurs started their companies for freedom and because they believed in their product or service and wanted to radically change the marketplace. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be rich and it can happen if you work your butt off and play your cards right but it is not going to happen overnight. Getting rich takes hard work, risk, dedication, perseverance, intelligence, tact, and sacrifice.

Everyone wants to be rich. Have you met someone who wants to be poor? There is no reason that you cannot become rich. In fact, it is up to you. The road is paved but you must figure out how to get to your destination, no maps, no GPS; you don’t even have headlights on the car. And to make matters worse, you will have people trying to carjack you on your way because they want to be rich too.

If you have an idea and want to make it a reality, contact IES. We will help you through it the right way. We can't guarantee you'll be rich, but if you really put your mind to building your business, the possibilities are endless.

IES, Inc.
781-816-9437
iesAdvisors.com

Kickstarter pulls the plug on $120,000 Kobe beef jerky scam just minutes before campaign expires.

Kickstarter fraudsters hawking Kobe beef jerky were just minutes away from completing the biggest-ever outright scam on the crowdfunding site last week.

A campaign titled "KOBE RED - 100% JAPANESE BEER FED KOBE BEEF JERKY" first appeared on Kickstarter on May 14, and it raised $120,000 from 3,300 backers over the past month.

That is, until Kickstarter pulled the plug just before the campaign was scheduled to end and the money was set to go into the fraudsters' bank accounts. Kickstarter relies on its community to self-police, and the Kobe Red shutdown came after sharp Kickstarter users and a documentary team raised concerns.

The supposed company in charge, Los Angeles-based Magnus Fun, promised the jerky was the first kind made from the tender and expensive Japanese Kobe beef.

Magnus Fun posted a decent amount of information on the Kobe Red page, including rave reviews from people who had supposedly tried the jerky -- "omg im licking my fingers in public," one alleged text message screenshot reads. The fraudsters also included information about imported meat inspection, and they posted a story about one of its founders eating Kobe beef on his uncle's ranch.

But Magnus Fun also raised a few eyebrows. They didn't post much personal information, nor did they include photos and videos identifying themselves (which Kickstarter recommends as best practices). And when a Kickstarter user raised concerns in the campaign's comments section, Magnus Fun didn't really try to defend itself.

The scam concerns took off when the team from "Kickstarted," a documentary about Kickstarter, looked more deeply into the campaign.

The "Kickstarted" team highlighted problems with the Kobe Red page, including discrepancies between the high cost of production and the low pledges requested from backers. The documentarians also pointed out the comments from people swearing that they'd tried and loved the jerky all came from relatively new accounts that had backed only failed projects.

In a long post on their own site about their role in exposing the Kobe Red scam, the "Kickstarted" team says they reached out to Magnus Fun with an interview request for the film, and Magnus Fun went back and forth for a bit before promising instead to send footage from a recent taste test in California.

"Kickstarted" said it uncovered "dozens of other smaller inconsistencies and fishy elements" that were enough for Kickstarter to shut the campaign down.

Magnus Fun has since deleted its Kickstarter account, and Kickstarter itself declined to comment on this story.

"It's a credit to Kickstarter and the collective power of the crowd to identify fraud," the "Kickstarted" team, which also posted on Reddit about its concerns, wrote in its blog post.

Kickstarter projects have raised $571 million to date, and as with any major platform for raising money, scammers will try to bilk well-meaning backers out of serious cash. In the case of Kobe Red, they very nearly got away with it.

Source: CNN