Weekly Blog

As you all know we finally got into our building last week and I do say it is awesome! I love the new and clean learning environment. This week has flown by so quickly that I forgot today was Friday!

Speaking of my new school, in Intro to Pub. we discussed as a class about scams and phishing. In one of my previous blogs I talked a little bit about phishing. Phishing is not what you do at the pier or at the beach. Below is the vocabulary we learned this week and it will tell you what phishing is with a couple more vocab. 


Accumulated Vocabulary:

1. Scam: An attempt to trick someone, usually with the intention of stealing money or private information.
2. Identity Theft: A type of crime in which your private information is stolen and used for criminal activity.
3. Vulnerable: In a position that makes it easier for you to be harmed or attacked.
4. Phishing: When you send phony emails, pop-up messages, social media messages, texts, calls, or links to fake websites in order to hook you into giving out your personal and financial information.

Now that you know what phishing, scamming, identity theft, and vulnerable means:

Think-About-This...

• Do you know someone who has been scammed? What happened?
• What is the purpose of a scam? What tricks do people use to carry out a scam?
• Can people get scammed on the internet? How?

We mainly focused on Identity Theft because it is a growing problem in the world. Do you think you could guess things that identity thieves look for? Were you thinking around the lines of your name that is on your birth certificate, your addresses, bank account, license, etc. If any of your personal information is stolen then you could possibly go to jail or even worse lose all your money in your account. Thieves are looking for people who have good credit score and if they are "clean". Clean in that context would be if they have clean social security numbers. 

It can take years to gather lost money back and to clear your history. If your history is not cleared you may not be able to buy houses or cars. With this mishap you have to have a lot of time, patience and money! 


We talked a small fraction on scamming and what it is. In an earlier blog post of mine I talked about scamming more in depth. Although here is some new information and helpful rules to follow...

1. Five rules/ways to follow to protect yourself from online scams:
1. Avoid opening the message or email in the first place.
2. Don’t click on any links or download any attachments; they might contain viruses or spyware. Viruses can   s  l  o  w   you down. 
3. Don’t reply!!!
4. Mark as “junk mail” or “spam” for your provider or report it to your social network site.
5. If you are concerned about an account you have with a company. Make sure verify the company’s contact information elsewhere online first, contact them person.