Let’s start with some “facts”:
- If sufficiently motivated, no one can stop you doing what you want with your money
- No amount of technology will stop you, doing what you want with your money
- “I’ll never be fooled by those silly emails and text scams”
And this is exactly what the scammers are praying on.
They are often given the mantle of “Hacker” but in the hacker space, there are people driven by many different motives, more often than not – good! So lets be more specific…
Truly, these people are “complete and utter… {insert descriptive expletive of choice}!!
So how do we stop them?
These are lots of amazing things we can learn to do, like create and use a password system: strong passwords, stored somewhere safe, never use the same password for any other login AND back it all up.
However, ask yourself honestly: Will you create the time to do this? You absolutely should but…
Chances are the answer is either no or a compromised halfway house of “sort of”. Despite the best of intentions, our life and priorities often get in the way.
So what can you do, that feels less of a job and/or takes less time?
Use a process!
Business, personal, home or family – a process can stop the scammers in their path.
Believe it or not, it is straight forward and easy to implement. What’s the catch? You might need to sacrifice some convenience.
So what do you do? This is what I do:
- Set a payment limit. (You choose yours!)
- Choose a trusted person(s)
- Before you make any payment above your limit, run it past any one of your trusted people (in person or by speaking to them – NOT text/email)
Simple really?
Remember these scams work on shaming you, building insecurities in your own judgement and adding pressure.
Having a process, slows the interaction, creates time and space for you to think.
Does it really inconvenience you in the long term? Can you afford to loose “x” amount or indeed any amount of money?
No amount of insurance will cover you for giving away your life or company savings.
No trusted person will ever shame you for sense checking a purchase/transfer!
Stay safe and feel free to ask questions.