Guest Post: Avoiding Online Scams

This week, we’re pleased to feature a guest blog post from Enrichment Program instructor Scott Henke, the owner of Onsite Consulting, which has been helping Denver-area consumers with their tech issues since 1982. Henke has taught computer classes for three decades, bringing humor and insight to complex issues. He will teach three Enrichment Program classes this fall about practical computer skills.

This November, you can take a one-night Zoom class that could save you and your family tens of thousands of dollars.

On November 11, I’ll teach a class for DU’s Enrichment Program called How to Detect and Avoid Internet Scams and Identity Theft.

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center receives more than 4,000 complaints per day on average and Americans lost $12.5 billion to all kinds of internet scams last year. You can easily avoid most scams with the right information.

The Enrichment Program class will cover text scams, email scams, random phone calls, and how to quickly detect fraud and avoid putting your finances at risk.

One of the scams currently trending is a text message asking you to confirm your Google, Microsoft, or Apple ID. When you click on the link, you are directed to a fake website where you inadvertently give the criminal your information. You can avoid this by hovering over links to assess them before you click on them.

There are also common emails pretending to be from an antivirus program saying you need to renew your antivirus for $499. These are fraudulent messages that trick you into giving them your credit card number.

The most dangerous is when you let someone claiming to be the FBI, IRS, Amazon, or Dell access your computer remotely for free to fix something. Think critically about such claims whenever faced with something too good to be true. Amazon doesn’t fix computers, and how would the FBI or IRS even know if there were something to fix?

Some of my clients have told me they were convinced to send $15,000 in cash to a scammer. One client wired $150,000! Scammers are trained to steal your money. They do this full-time every day.

The Enrichment Program class will prepare you for these tricks. You’ll get helpful information in layman’s terms that can greatly lessen the chances of this life-altering identity theft happening to you. In addition to helping you recognize potential scams, I’ll teach you how to take steps like locking down your online accounts and securing your home Wi-Fi.

If you know of someone who might be vulnerable and might fall prey to a scammer, they can take the class from anywhere in the country via the Zoom link. As an instructor, I make sure the class is informative and fun. I’ll even email you the class handouts ahead of time so you can reference them.

Online predators do exist, but we can place safeguards against them. Make sure you and your assets remain safe and register now for this valuable and accessible class.

Register for How to Detect and Avoid Internet Scams & Identity Theft

When you enroll in the Enrichment Program’s Computer Package, you’ll save $10 on three informative classes taught by Scott Henke this fall: