Share with care, be aware: Tips on internet safety from San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department

Members also shared some of their experiences with scam calls, emails and wire fraud.

Gregory was born and raised in Apple Valley.

“He went to San Bernardino County Sheriff's (Training Academy) and graduated shortly after turning 21,” spending six months in corrections in Adelanto and five years in Barstow, said Elizabeth Hayden of the chamber in making the introduction.

In 2022, Gregory transferred to the Colorado River Station, where he worked at Parker Dam as the resident deputy before being promoted to detective of Needles.

LOCK YOUR DEVICES

“Make sure you lock your devices like you lock your front door,” Gregory said.

Whether it’s a cell phone, tablet, computer, iPad, or anything else, no device should go unlocked.

Use a passcode or fingerprint to lock your phone or tablet. If you have a computer, use a strong password that’s at least 12 characters long.

“An example of a strong password would be something with numbers, letters and symbols and upper and lowercase,” Gregory said. “One of my favorite ways to type up a password is to use an address.”

For instance, he said, the address to the old Needles station, currently under construction, is 1111 Bailey Ave. and so to make that a password, one could use 1111#Bailey.

“That’s a pretty strong password,” he said. “It’s long, and it covers all the characters that you want to have for a password.”

KNOW THE RED FLAGS OF SCAMS

“If someone contacts you and asks you to pay by wire or gift card, be aware it’s probably a scam,” Gregory said.

Many of us have gotten those phone calls, text messages or emails saying that you may have won a lottery. One of the most recent scams Gregory has seen a lot of is people are contacted and told that they won a lottery — and that they have to pay taxes on their winnings before they receive a dime.

“Sounds pretty exciting when you see that big dollar amount that you’ve won, and then you pay the taxes on it and then never receive your money,” he said.

Jeryl Beasly, chamber board secretary, said her grandmother had an encounter with a phone scammer.

“She received a phone call from a young person who was hysterical saying, ‘Grandma, I’m on vacation. I got in a car accident and I need money, otherwise they’re taking me to jail,’ and fortunately, she said, ‘OK, I have to talk to your father first,’ and hung up and she called my parents and they’re like, ‘He’s not on vacation, he’s at work.”

You want to help your grandchildren, she said, and she didn’t know how to get the money to him so that’s why she had to call.

Regardless, it’s good to verify the information, Gregory said.

Another example, he continued, is of people getting a call that their grandson is in jail in Mexico and needs bail money wired.

“That’s a pretty scary phone call to get,” he said.

Interim Chamber President Karrie Brazaski said that her mom got that call, but all her grandkids called her by a certain name so she knew it was a scam.

Everybody and anybody who has a phone, an email or social media account has had an encounter with a would-be scammer.

Shay Williamson, the general manager of Carl’s Jr, said she’s seen an increase in scam calls over the last five years working in the fast food industry.

“People call all the time and tell us how they’re from corporate and they want us to take all our money out of savings and deposit it into Big Boy,” she said. “We have so many different varieties of life that support all our locations throughout California, so we really have to train these kids because a couple of them did it.”

These scammers, she said, will call not just once, but throughout the week, getting the name of the person answering the phone, who’s in charge, and then calling back and creating a relationship with them.

“It’s unfortunate and it’s pretty common,” she said.

People continue to receive emails from scammers congratulating them for winning a prize at a home improvement store, a retail store or saying that their Amazon membership payment has bounced, baiting them to click on the link provided thereby installing malware and gaining access to your sensitive information.

SHARE WITH CARE

According to statista.com, over half of the global population are social media users.

Many unknowingly share personal information making them and their families easy targets for identity theft.

Online dating is a big pool to target people, Gregory said. It’s important to educate family and friends about online dating safety, even if it doesn’t apply to you.

“You want to share with care,” Gregory said. “You want to limit the amount of personal information that you put out there online.”

Many like to post pictures on Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms, but it’s important to have your privacy set up to where you’re sharing those things only with the people you want to.

“There’s profiles out there that have a lot of public information that anybody in the world can access and that can be a bad thing when somebody’s targeting you… The other thing too is that it also puts your family at risk so when you have a public profile like that, your family members can also be targeted,” Gregory said.

WIRE FRAUD & REAL ESTATE

The real estate industry is huge for wire fraud, said Innovative Property Solutions Broker Susan Schiveley.

People buying any type of property are getting an email from what looks like the title company saying that their wiring instructions have changed, she said.

“Millions and millions and millions of dollars have been lost and if it could be found within like the first four hours, they’ve had great response in recovering those funds,” Schiveley said. “I know a bunch of title companies that literally people have lost everything and they lose the purchase of the house, they’ve just sold another house, yeah, it’s really bad.”

And now, she said she’s getting emails telling her about “so-and-so’s” payoff on their loan but she deletes them because she doesn’t have a client by that name.

“But you know, they’re really trying to get into all avenues financially,” she said.

“So how do they know I’m closing?” asked Beasly.

They’ve somehow gotten into and are monitoring your emails, Schiveley responded.

“They go in and they change the email by just, like maybe one letter or something and then they tell the people that they’re wiring instructions have changed,” she continued.

By law now, she said every customer has to sign a wire fraud disclosure and reiterate to them about 15 times throughout the transaction that their wiring instructions will never change and if they do get an email or a phone call, not to change anything and to call the title company.

Scammers are also targeting rental properties, Schiveley said.

IPS, along with many real estate agencies, distribute their rental property listings to various websites. Scammers, she said, will then take pictures of their rentals and put them on Craig’s List and Facebook Marketplace and then ask for money before they will even show the property.

“We’ve had to report numerous properties like that so I now have cyber insurance to protect my company and my properties because it's just gotten so out of control,” Schiveley said.