techsupportoffice

Avoid PayPal Friends and Family scams in marketplace purchases romance scams fake jobs and online sales, including understanding Goods and Services purchase protection versus Friends and Family personal payments, recognizing seller requests to avoid fees offer discounts claim company reimbursement or say they lack business accounts, refusing personal payments to strangers for items services tickets or transactions, treating insistence on Friends and Family as the warning sign, trying PayPal Report a Problem after payment, disputing linked credit card charges, reporting to FTC marketplaces dating platforms police and IC3, avoiding fake PayPal refund follow-up scams, using Goods and Services by default for strangers freelancers and marketplace purchases, checking seller history, and avoiding bank transfers wires and gift cards.

Understand password passphrase and PIN differences for Windows Mac iPhone Android online accounts and devices, including passwords as character strings for email banking shopping and social accounts, passphrases as long multiword passwords where length does the security work, PINs as short numeric codes protected by device lockout or wipe limits, choosing long unique passwords or password-manager generated credentials for online accounts, using PINs for local phones tablets and laptops, using a strong passphrase for password managers and main email, why forced uppercase number symbol rules create predictable patterns, why short PINs are acceptable only when guess attempts are limited, keeping PINs and passwords independent, and pairing credentials with two-factor authentication.

Recognize PayPal invoice scams and money requests that may be genuinely sent through PayPal, including expensive fake antivirus electronics gift card or subscription invoices, logging in by typing paypal.com, checking Activity, understanding invoices do not charge automatically until approved, spotting phone numbers in invoice notes that lead to fake support, checking seller details newly created accounts and generic emails, avoiding invoice phone numbers, opening PayPal disputes through Resolution Center, contacting banks or card issuers for linked-card disputes, responding after remote access or personal data exposure, forwarding suspicious messages to PayPal, reporting to FTC, marking emails as spam, turning on PayPal activity notifications, and checking automatic payment settings.

Recognize mystery shopper and secret shopper fake check scams from emails texts mail and job listings, including large checks deposited before work, instructions to keep a fee and wire spend or gift-card the rest, knowing real mystery shopping pays after reports or reimburses small purchases, understanding bank funds availability is not the same as a cleared check, checking company names with scam and the Mystery Shopping Providers Association, avoiding upfront certification or assignment fees, spotting unsolicited easy well-paid offers, contacting the bank after depositing a fake check, stopping spending and contact, reporting wires gift cards and fraud to issuers FTC and police when needed, and understanding liability after fake checks bounce.

Spot fake Netflix billing scam emails and texts about payment declined account on hold and account suspension, including checking sender addresses for netflix.com and members.netflix.com, hovering over update payment links, recognizing urgency generic greetings missing plan details and missing card last four digits, knowing Netflix does not ask for full card numbers security codes Social Security numbers or passwords by email, verifying by typing netflix.com and checking Account Billing details, changing Netflix passwords after fake page entry, signing out of all devices, contacting card issuers after card entry, checking billing history and viewing activity, forwarding phishing to Netflix, using unique passwords and password managers, and applying the same checks to Spotify Disney Amazon Prime and Hulu billing scams.

Spot Medicare scams involving fake calls texts mail emails door knocks new card claims Medicare Number verification free genetic testing back braces knee braces medical equipment open enrollment urgency and coverage threats, including knowing Medicare does not call to verify activate or reissue cards, legitimate equipment comes from doctors not cold calls, refusing gift cards wires and phone payments, calling 1-800-MEDICARE or using Medicare.gov directly, reporting exposed Medicare Numbers, checking Medicare Summary Notices and online claims, reporting to HHS OIG, freezing credit after Social Security or bank exposure, and helping seniors review unexpected contact.

Understand the difference between malware viruses spyware ransomware worms trojans adware and browser hijackers across Windows Mac Android and iPhone, including malware as the umbrella term, viruses attaching to files and spreading, spyware secretly monitoring keystrokes browsing messages and passwords, ransomware locking or encrypting files for payment, worms spreading through vulnerabilities, trojans disguised as legitimate programs, identifying symptoms such as ransom notes slow devices popups changed homepages account logins and suspicious apps, running full scans with reputable antivirus, disconnecting after ransomware, resetting passwords after spyware, and recognizing fake virus warning popups.

Recognize lottery sweepstakes and prize scams by call letter text or email, including fake foreign lotteries Mega Millions Powerball dealership giveaways and charity raffles, knowing you cannot win a contest you did not enter, refusing upfront fees taxes processing insurance customs or release charges, understanding U.S. taxes on real prizes are paid after the fact to the IRS, avoiding gift cards wires crypto fake checks and partial money-back requests, spotting urgency secrecy and foreign lottery claims, verifying organizations through official contact information, avoiding suspicious prize checks, reporting to the FTC and USPS Postal Inspection Service, blocking without replying, understanding older adult loss patterns, and contacting banks or payment providers after sending money.

Tell whether a job offer is fake, especially remote work-from-home offers by email text LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram or messaging apps, including offers without real interviews, chat-only recruiters, upfront equipment training software payments, fake checks and overpayment requests, reshipping package jobs, unusually high pay for vague work, verifying company careers pages, searching recruiter names and posting text, checking sender email domains, calling the company from its official website, avoiding spending deposited checks, reversing wires or gift cards quickly, identity theft steps after sharing SSN bank accounts or ID, stopping package reshipping, and reporting to FTC LinkedIn or job boards.

Recognize jury duty scams in the United States, including callers pretending to be sheriffs deputies court clerks police or courthouse staff, claims about missed jury duty contempt of court warrants arrest and immediate fines, knowing courts follow up by mail and do not resolve missed summons by phone payment, avoiding gift cards wire transfer cryptocurrency and payment apps, understanding caller ID spoofing, hanging up without confirming personal details, calling the courthouse using official contact information, contacting banks card issuers payment apps or gift card issuers after payment, freezing credit after sharing Social Security numbers or birth dates, and reporting to the FTC local police and court authorities.