Who would think that a 79-year-old woman named Vivian, could pose a danger to online tech support and refund scammers? This adorable grandmother who loves whiskey and making hashbrown casseroles seems like the perfectly innocent victim. But she’s a character being played by an ethical hacker, Pierogi from Scammer Payback. He uses this character to…
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The long-awaited Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) came into effect in mid-2021. This is great news for all South African consumers who are tired of receiving marketing emails, messages, robocalls and facing the unwanted bombardment of electronic advertising that they never agreed to receive. Any company that violates this law can face fines up…
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We all know the feeling of opening our email and seeing a long list of unopened emails waiting in our inbox. One by one, we scroll down and look at each item. Some we are expecting, some we have no idea what they are about and others have a little surprise we didn’t expect. What…
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On Friday, 18 March, TransUnion announced that their systems had been hacked and were being held to ransom. As one of the largest credit bureaus in the world, this breach includes 54 million records of personal information. The Southern African Fraud Prevention Service (SAFPS) said that although TransUnion was trying to retrieve the compromised data, their…
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There are many reasons why gaming and social media are habit-forming. Some reasons are quite obvious and others are more manipulative by design. Here are the top five: They are fun. Games are played by people of all ages, because they are fun. For children, gaming is a very good way to teach them what…
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As of 9 February 2022, the South African unemployment rate was at 46.6% among adults and 66.5% among youth. Unemployment in our country is directly correlated to crime as desperate job seekers turn to alternative options to feed their families. The Covid-19 pandemic put a lot of pressure on businesses that could not operate at…
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Scammers easily hide their true identity by pretending to be someone else – maybe even you or your child. They can then remain anonymous as they commit their crimes under stolen identities. There are many reasons why they would pretend to be someone else – the most obvious of which is so that they don’t…
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Some scammers are very clever. They will use current or emotional causes to create believable scams to solicit money from their victims. At present, there are many email, SMS, social media and WhatsApp scams where the message appears to have come from someone raising funds to support the Ukrainian citizens during the Russian invasion. They…
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How do you know that the person you are chatting to online is actually who they claim to be? The Internet has made it so easy for people to connect with other people all over the world. Most people who create online profiles, do so honestly and with the intention to connect with friends, family,…
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You may wonder why anyone would go to extreme lengths to target your child online. Why would international cybercrime syndicates create elaborate email, gaming, and chat scams just to get information from your child? Crimes against children fall under these primary categories: Sexual abuse and exploitation. They are soliciting and distributing child pornography. Human trafficking.…
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