ShangXian 2025-02-20 07:30:38

Knowledge is the key to counterattack these attacks. I am glad the legal stuff has been put into motion reading her journal, but it's always important to stay always alert.

By far, data breaches are responsible for the most stolen credit card numbers. The FlexBooker data breach, for example, exposed ~19 million records containing partial credit card information earlier this year.

These card details end up for sale to hackers on the Dark Web for as little as $17. Unfortunately, we usually can’t (or don’t know how to) protect ourselves from data breaches.

For credit card theft that targets individuals, phishing is probably the most common method today. But scammers who steal your credit card information want to keep you blind to their scams as long as possible (to have time to max out your card).

And speaking of phishing at the beginning of this month I got a SMS in my dumb phone telling me that my debit card would have been blocked if I didn't update security info. I know these types of scams kilometers away but I still preferred to contact my financial service and inform them of the scam so they can keep track of those scams and report them to the authorities.

Another time, four years ago, I got an email telling to update my personal info, the email looked very legit but I didn't trust it, so I contacted again my bank and they old me that it was really them but that I did the right thing by contacting them anyway since phishers use these techniques.

My mother is very good at not falling for these scams but some years ago, she almost risked to fall for it. Another electricity agency had called with the intention of making us change supplier. To do this one of the key points is to request the identification number of the bill, so they can hook up to it and make you change supplier. I noticed she was on the phone and I hung up the phone immediately before she gave them the number and educated her on the matter.

ShangXian 2025-02-20 09:04:01 (Updated 2025-02-20 17:14:22)

They will learn eventually, very likely with the hard way sadly. But at the same time we young generations must always keep updated our knowledge and adapt our threat model with the new technologies arising so fast.

Think for example the types of scams that will be used more and more with AI, deep fakes, machine learning etc. We must be prepared and a way to do so is keeping in touch with technologies. Each time has its scam, even though I think phishing will always be the most effective way to scam people. It will evolve and blend with AIs soon.