Teach your kids to stay clear of the dangers lurking online

By STEVE ROSEN
The Kansas City Star

Hey, kids and parents, thanks for going online to check out my recent column on the secrets to success.

Several of you even posted e-mail responses. Let’s click on them to see what you had to say. The feedback could be educational.

Here’s the first comment: “How to make easy money fast and legally!!!!” Holy cow, by stuffing and licking envelopes from home, you can make $42,000 in a month? That’s what the e-mail said.

Just send in $6 for a training kit, and your children can moonlight after their social studies homework.

The note goes on to detail how to build the business, and how to send the $6 payment — mail six envelopes, with a $1 bill in each. Of course, this is legit, above-board and on the straight and narrow. Or, as the e-mail put it, “This is not a rip-off, it is not illegal, and it is virtually no risk.”

I’m sharing this “reader” comment with you to make a simple point, one that may not be obvious to your children no matter how many times you’ve warned them. Don’t believe everything online that you click on.

Put another way, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

When I read the envelope-stuffing business opportunity posted at the end of my recent column, I nearly went ballistic. Actually, the come-on appeared twice before it was removed from my newspaper’s Web site.

Scam artists float waves of fraudulent e-mails like this every day. They’re phishing for your personal information, bank accounts and credit card numbers, and are counting on you to let your guard down. It takes only a click on your computer mouse, and before you know it $500 may be winging its way from your bank account to Ukraine.

The day after my column feedback, several other e-mails landed in my mailbox that were scams masquerading as legitimate deals.

For example, this rather clumsily worded “alert” supposedly from Bank of America caught my eye, especially since my family has an account there: “This is your official notification from Bank of America. Your online has expired. If you want to continue using our service you have to renew your online.”

I was instructed to click on a link to complete a form with my updated personal information.

That was the “aha!” moment. Never, ever click on a link from what appears to be your bank, brokerage firm or any other entity and provide personal information. Even if you initiated the inquiry, be careful. Better to call the institution first and confirm whether the notification is real or a fake.

Another e-mail, purportedly from Time Warner Cable, was even slicker.

The notification indicated there had been “problems” processing my September statement for high-speed Internet service. It was recommended that I go to a “secure” Web site to verify my billing information. There was one caveat: “If you ignore our request, you leave us no choice but temporarily to suspend your account.”

Damon Porter, a Time Warner spokesman in Kansas City, confirmed it is not the cable company’s policy to notify customers about billing issues by e-mail. “When in doubt, if it doesn’t look right or sound right, call and verify.”

He added: “The Internet is open and accessible to all. Even at a young age, personal information is something that should be protected.”

Beth Givens, director of the San Diego-based Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, said scam artists rely on what she calls “coincidental synchronicity.” We tend to place more belief in messages and requests for personal information where we have a personal connection. I’m a Bank of America customer and a Time Warner customer; ergo I’m possible scam material involving those fraudulent company messages.

“The majority of these scam messages fall on deaf ears,” said Givens, “but the scammers are counting on some people to respond who may have had a recent connection to that company.”

Talk to your children about the dangers of providing personal information online. If you’re like me, there are plenty of examples of online scams to share with your kids. Confidence can come from learning to distinguish the real deal from the fake.

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Identity theft resources
• www.idtheftcenter.org : The Identity Theft Resource Center includes a section for teens, parents and teachers.

• www.privacyrights.org : The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse Web site is full of information on privacy issues and ID theft.

• www.consumer.gov/idtheft : The U.S. Federal Trade Commission offers plenty of useful, facts, stats, and consumer tips.