Today’s Cybersecurity tip is: report any issues
We can agree that no amount of security will keep you perfectly safe, right? That is to say, except completely staying off the internet and not using anybody with online connectivity … but that’s so user-prohibitive that it’s not very feasible. At any rate, you will have some issue or problem or questionable link or whatever. You just will.
So, what should you do? First step is to report it! To whom? That depends on what it is. You’ll need to report some issues to the government (FTC, IRS, etc.), some to your ISP, some to the originating service. I’ve compiled a few places to report scams, fraud, or other issues:
- FTC complaint site – https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/#crnt&panel1-1
A good first stop for reporting identity theft, scams, telemarketing, spam, and a variety of other issues - IdentityTheft.gov – https://www.identitytheft.gov/
Also an FTC website, but strictly devoted to Identity Theft and Data Breaches - FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center – https://www.ic3.gov
To file complaints about internet-based fraud - e-consumer.gov – https://www.econsumer.gov/en/Home/FileAComplaint/1#crnt
For complaints about international e-business fraud and scams - StopFraud.gov – https://www.stopfraud.gov/sf/report-financial-fraud
For complaints about financial fraud - A multitude of other resources is available at USA.gov – https://www.usa.gov/stop-scams-frauds
You may need to visit a service’s website to find where to send problems/scams/spam/etc. If you’re not sure, try entering “report fraud [service]” into your favorite search engine. For example, “report fraud verizon” returns the Verizon Fraud Prevention site as the first result.
Hopefully you never have to use these resources, but they’re good to know just in case.
See you tomorrow!