Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - BONUS: Stephen Kho On The Scam-demic

Episode Date: August 28, 2022

The guys have been hit with scam messages, so they spoke to Stephen Kho from Avast about the current 'Scam-demic', with ways to side-step those scheming scammers.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Now we're in the middle of a bit of a scandemic, it seems, at the moment, and Stephen Coe from Avast is going to join us right now to tell us how we can stop ourselves from getting scammed. It's happening all the time. Stephen, good morning. Good morning. Hi. Thank you. Cybersecurity expert, Stephen Coe. It's lovely to have you on. You're from Avast. That's right. It's an anti-malware company. Right, because apparently we're in the middle of a scandemic. There was the pandemic. Now we're in the middle of a scandemic. Yes, as we all know, we're all experiencing a lot of scams,

meaning we're receiving scams through our SMS messages, emails, and all social media as well whether it's tax related scams or valentine's day scams or whatever it is it's relentless isn't it

the scammers are relentless there's a lot of people posing as other people actually just before producer Joel who's with us right now his girlfriend got a message last night

from Jono yeah on Instagram Jono Pryor it was actually a zero instead of the O in the username but yeah requesting my girlfriend you know that's definitely me though that's not a scam at Jono Pryor. It was actually a zero instead of the O in the username.

But yeah, requesting my girlfriend. You know, that's definitely me though. That's not a scam. Just get it a click of the link though. I need to click the link. There's almost a problem.

They go through a lot of effort. This has got the photo of Jono on there. It looks legit. They've got all the same details as his actual account. They go through a lot of effort, Stephen. Yeah,

and what you just talked about is a very targeted one. We call that phishing or spear phishing. So it's very targeted. They tailor it to you and they, and what you just talked about is a very targeted one. We call that phishing or spear phishing. So it's very targeted. They tailor it to you, and they want to get to you because out of research, most people, nearly half, admit that if a message is addressed personally, they're more likely to act on it and believe on it. So definitely very tricky and very seasonal. So scammers follow the money

and they go with what's happening kind of around the world. So if there's a disaster or there's Valentine's Day or there's tax time, they do the theme and blend it in so that it evokes your emotion. Basically, they try to get you in

by creating fear and urgency. They keep it topical, the scammers. They obviously go for mass, and even if they get one or two on the hook, that pays dividends. For sure. Scams these days, a lot of them come through our SMS messages, and they're so cheap to send. So if they send several million and they get a couple of percent hit rate, and that's a success. So in fact, just from January to March this year in New Zealand, over $3.7 million were already lost to financial scams. That's this year.

Yeah, it's significant. Courier one, that often will happen as well. They will go, oh, you've got a package coming. You've just got to pay a little bit more for something to the package to arrive. And often you're like, oh, yeah, you've got a package coming, you've just got to pay a little bit more for something for the package to arrive. And often you're like, oh, yeah, I do have a package coming, and then you're about to click on, well, hang on. That's right. The delivery ones are so common,

especially when we had this pandemic and we're all at home and buying online and I'm getting everything delivered. It's hard to pick out what's real and what's not. Yeah, it's got to the point where I don't trust anything. I don't trust even, I got an email from my mum saying, I love you, darling. I was like, don't trust it. Scam.

I do not buy it. She's trying to stiff me out of something, this person. Because there was a great time for scamming, Stephen. You know, the scammers and us, the public, we knew what was going on. We just, we had to watch out for an overly wealthy Nigerian prince who needed to deposit his funds somewhere. You know, a couple of schmucks fell for it.

But that was it. That was it. It's just become so complex and complicated that it feels like navigating through the internet. You feel like a tourist with a bum bag on, walking through. That's a good way of describing it. But you're right.

The scams are now a long-term play. So there are short scams where they just send you a message, click on this, get a malware, steal your banking details. Sophisticated groups of scammers that do, for example, romance or financial scams where they build a relationship and over many months get you their trust and create a friendship. And then suddenly, oh, their mother's now sick or their friend's now in hospital and they need money. And I imagine, you know, particularly with the relationship ones, a lot of embarrassment would come along with that too, I imagine.

Yeah, and that's the thing. It becomes so, you know, how did I fall for it? I feel stupid, I feel dumb. But of course, you know, having reputable anti-malware, anti-malware software like Avast one, which is free, is really important because it's like having your doors and windows locked so that the simple, non-targeted and common malware will get picked up. Because that's what you're doing at Avast, right? That's right.

We have a free version of the software that protects... Free? You're scamming me. It sounds like a scam, Stephen. It sounds like a scam, Stephen. No, we're not giving you anything. It's just free. There's no more.

You're not going to make any money. This is a really complex scam you've got going on here. Okay, so at Avast.com, free. That's awesome. That's awesome you guys are doing that and protecting a lot of New Zealanders because it sounds like we all need that protection right now. You know the ones where you get a text and it's like, click on this link.

As soon as I click on the link, have they got access to my whole phone or computer? So what happens is when you click on something, it normally then downloads a piece of malware. Now it'll try and install itself. So it's like a Trojan software, they call it, on the background. If you don't have any anti-malware software to guarding your phone,

you'll probably install quietly, you won't even notice, and then from there on, they've got a foot pole, and they can steal stuff. Okay, interesting to know. Well, listen, this has been a great chat, Stephen. Go and keep being paranoid on the internet, and you've made us all paranoid about the internet too. Thank you, John to know. Well, listen, this has been a great chat, Stephen. Go and keep being paranoid on the internet,

and you've made us all paranoid about the internet too. Thank you, John and Dan. Great to be on your show.