Review: Edward Jones Protect Financial accounts from “cyberthieves” {Jones, E. (2022, December 28). Protect financial accounts from “cyberthieves”. Waycross Journal-Herald, pp. 5–5. Reported by John Pfaff in Financial Focus. John Plaff, Financial Advisor, Edward Jones, 608 Jane St., Waycross, Georgia, 912.285.0009.}
What a timely article! “Cybercrime is booming.” And this article addresses that fact and gives some very concrete, wise suggestions on what you can do to protect yourself from being a victim of “cybercrime” (or scams, which is what this type of this criminal activity is usually called).
It is pointed out in this article that “in 2021, the FBI reported that cybercriminals scammed nearly $7 billion from Americans – a figure higher than the gross domestic product (GDP) of Switerzerland for that year, according to a research organization World Economics.”
Suggestions made are for us to:
- Watch out for “phishing” attempts.
- Think twice before clicking or downloading.
- Become adept with passwords.
- Use your own devices (meaning not using electronics that you DON’T own and have control over).
- Be cautious about using Wi-Fi when traveling.
- Don’t give up control of your computer (meaning DON’T provide remote access to your computer to a stranger who contacts you… EVER).
- Know whom you’re calling for help (meaning DON’T look up the number on the internet as it could be a wrong number, and DO only call a number on a credit card or a document you are personally given by a lender or financial advisor).
- Review all correspondence with your financial services provider.
More detail on each of these suggestions is given in this article.
On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being poor, 2 being fair, 3 being average, 4 being above average, and 5 being excellent, I rate this article as a 4.5. It makes more concrete suggestions on protecting oneself from scams, spams, and hacks than most other articles I have read . However, it leaves out one that I think should be added to the list, and that is Don’t use debit cards. To be fair, I have not seen my debit card suggestion in any other financial institution publication either.
The banks are encouraging people to make deposits and transfers via their cell phone, and I think that is a real disservice to their customers. It is very dangerous to make transfers via your cell phone (i.e. Zelle and other methods) , because you have no protection once your money is gone from your account…..making your transfer of funds using a cell phone a perfect way for scammers to get your money! It is done with a debit card…..And that is a topic of a post I will be making soon.
Using a debit card at the gas station is also dangerous! Another topic!
I have no debit cards. Credit cards are a better choice of payment for anything. But that too is another topic!
Every week, topics on financial management are reported upon by John Pfaff in the Waycross Journal-Herald.
