October is Cybersecurity Awareness and Online Safety Month
October is Cybersecurity Awareness and Online Safety Month! Join AARP California and cyber safety experts at a series of weekly presentations on what you can do to protect yourself and the people you care about from scams and fraud.
October 9: Emerging Online Frauds and Scams/Staying Safe Online
Hardly a month goes by without hearing of another cyber scam, fraud or data breach exposing our personal information to hackers and potential identity thieves. These breaches affect millions of individuals: Equifax–147 million, Target–110 million, Uber–57 million, Home Depot–53 million, and the list goes on and on.
October 16: Cryptocurrency Scams
Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and hundreds more are hot commodities in online trading. While it’s possible for an investor to make a profit, many people have experienced dramatic losses, some through bogus investment platforms touted by scammers as sure moneymakers. Cryptocurrency fraud has taken a quantum leap in recent years. The FTC says that in 2022, more than 53,000 people reported losing a total of more than $1.4 billion in crypto to scams.
October 23: Turning the Tables on Scammers
Whether it’s on the phone, online, or in person, scammers think they’re clever and can separate us from our hard-earned money or identity. But we are fighting back. Come hear from experts, share your stories, and learn great fraud prevention and detection tips.
October 30: Artificial Intelligence/AI Scams
Scammers often pull personal information from social media profiles and other online sources. They then use this information together with AI technology to personalize scam texts and emails, making them more convincing and harder to detect as fake.
