Hackers and Scammers

Staying safe online is very important, especially when it comes to unethical hackers, or scammers. An unethical hacker is a programmer or experienced person with computers with malicious intentions to try to either, steal money, hurt others, or break the law. A scammer is a person who contacts you in some way to receive personal information, such as, your social security number, your credit/debit card number, or other information.

• Unethical Hackers

An unethical hacker is a programmer or experienced person with computers with malicious intentions to try to steal money, hurt others, or break the law.

One way an unethical hacker could work is by guessing your passphrase. If an unethical hacker finds out your passphrase, they are able to log-on to your internet account or anything that is passphrase protected. That could mean losing information, losing access, or other bad things. Make sure to have a secure passphrase and 2 Factor Authentication See "Ways to Defend" to learn how to create a secure passphrase.

Another way an unethical hacker could work is by getting access to the main server or company files, and finding out log-in information. This requires no guessing, and they may log-on to an account and sell the log-on information.

• Scammers

A scammer is a person or automated computer that sends out information or other data to try to get a payout or access to an account. The most common are phishing. Phishing is sending out a fake message or data acting like the original company to steal data or personal information. Lots of times, they will create a website that looks official, but is fake. Another common way scammers work, is by calling you acting like an official company. They will try to receive money for a service you never signed up for, or something that you already pay for. They will call you asking for payment information, then charge absurd amounts of money. They may also request you to go and buy gift cards, then tell them the code to redeem.