What Moms Need to Know About Online Hoaxes

It's everyone's online nightmare: hackers infiltrate one of your personal accounts, impersonate you and try to scam your family and friends. That's what happened recently to Jordanna Joaquina. She was away in Palm Springs when she learned through friends that someone posing as her on Facebook was claiming that she'd been robbed at gunpoint in London and needed money.

"I found out really immediately because my friends were like 'What the hell?' They knew I was not in London," says Joaquina.

The hackers claimed that she was scared and needed money to get home, but fortunately still had her passport. Anyone who tried to question the authenticity of the posts was immediately un-friended.

"They even deleted posts that I had made saying I was in Palm Springs," said Joaquina.

When she learned about the hacking, she immediately contacted Facebook through friends and her husband's account. However, it was at least six hours before her account was suspended. In that time, one friend of hers was bilked out of $500.

"When [the hackers] asked him for more money, he got really suspicious," she said.

As a mom, you need to be aware of scams like this and how to avoid them—for yourself and for your kids, too.

How to Spot a Scam

When it comes to online information, consider this old adage: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Sorry, folks, but you probably haven't won the lottery in some far-flung country, and a Nigerian princess doesn't need your help to retrieve her inheritance.

These are just some of the popular scams that hit e-mail inboxes every single day. Another popular scam involves classifieds sites like Craigslist. Potential buyers will offer you an inflated price for merchandise you're selling, asking you to send it somewhere far away (to an address in Africa, for example) and offering to mail you a check. Then, the scammer might ask you to refund the difference between the listed price and the amount of the check. A good rule of thumb: If someone is offering an unusually high price for your merchandise, you haven't struck gold. It's probably a scam.

When you receive an e-mail that seems suspicious, your first line of defense is the internet itself. Enter the subject line of the e-mail into a search engine If it's a scam, you will probably find warnings about it. Sites like Snopes.com are another good place to check if you suspect an e-mail is a scam.

Know Your Email

Here's how to spot a scam e-mail instantly:
 

• When you receive an e-mail that comes from a totally unknown sender, or contains a strange-looking attachment, be wary of opening it. Programs like Microsoft Outlook and services like Gmail will let you preview a portion of the email without actually opening it. If it seems suspicious, delete it.
• If an e-mail asks you to click on a link, don't click on it. "Hover over the text to see what pops up," advises Michael Miora, president of ContingenZ Corp, Information Assurance Specialists. This allows you to see the address where you'll actually go when you click. Miora says that often a different link will appear than the one printed in the e-mail. "Do not click it, as it will take you to a 'phishing' site, designed to look just like [a legitimate and familiar] site. You will enter your login information into this bogus site and the thieves will have it."
• Check the "to" and "from" e-mail addresses. If the "to" e-mail address isn't yours or if the "from" e-mail address is from someone different than the person supposedly sending the message, delete it.
• You may receive bank statements via e-mail, but your financial institution will never e-mail you asking for your password. Paypal and eBay won't be either. Wendy Goldband, who reports on the Scam of the Week on WNAV-AM, an Annapolis morning show, says that one popular scam going around claims to be technical support trying to upgrade your e-mail address. Users are asked to send over their e-mail address, password and user name. "There are several clues that this is phony. One obvious one is asking for your e-mail address. Wouldn't technical support already know that? The thing to do when you get e-mails like this is to check directly with your online account support desk," says Goldband.

Protect Yourself on Social Networks

Having a strong password just isn't enough to protect yourself on social networks, says Joaquina. She thought her Facebook password was secure, by most standards. Despite the complicated letter and number combination, hackers were still able to get in. To make things more difficult for hackers, use unique IDs and passwords for all sites. That way, even if your Facebook account gets hacked, you won't be opening the door to having your other accounts hacked, too.

Also, when it comes to social networking sites, keep personal information to a minimum. Carrie Kerskie, co-founder of The Cyber Safety Institute, says that you shouldn't put your full birth date on any social networking site. Furthermore, she says not to use any family tree-type assignments either. "This will reveal your mother's maiden name, a common security question," says Kerskie.

Another thing to be weary of? Third party applications that can link your various social networking accounts. "When you accept them you are allowing them access to your profile page and your contacts," says Kerskie.