Day 20 - May 20 - National Rescue Dog Day
- Elizabeth Rasnick
- May 24, 2023
- 2 min read
Apologies for this posting a day late. I was working on it and a migraine crept up on me and took me down for a count.
National Rescue Dog Day is special for me as I am a rescue dog mom and a foster dog mom. Many shelters try to empty their facilities, even if only for the day, on NRDD for a few reasons. It helps give them time for a thorough clean and supply stock-up. Having all the animals in foster care, even just for the day, helps them decompress from the crowded and noisy environment of the shelter. Short-term foster families often fall in love with their foster pets and adopt them. We got into fostering this way. It was a long weekend, short-term fostering program. We fell in love with our foster dog and the fostering process. We currently have a foster named Bo, we call him Beau, short for Beauregard. The pictures are of our fosters with the far right top and bottom being our rescues.
You might be wondering how any of this relates to cybersecurity. Here we go. Cybercriminals love to pick on people with good intentions. On days like NRDD, Veterans’ Day, Independence Day, and others, bad actors will target people who have a tendency to donate to organizations that support shelter animals, veterans, historical societies, and so on. They like to use vishing (voice mail), smishing (text messaging), and phishing (emails with malicious intent) tactics to coerce people into donating to the cause they love. These attempts are subtle and sophisticated. They appear legitimate and can be tough to recognize. Here are some tips for how to reduce the likelihood that you will fall prey to one of these schemes.
For voicemail messages, do not redial the number that called you. Instead, go to the organization’s website and see what phone number is listed there. If a person’s name was left in the voice message, see if you can find them listed on the company website. You may not always find them, but it is worth a look.
For text messages, do not reply to the message directly and do not click on any links in an unsolicited text message. Instead, go to the organization’s website and see if the deal you were offered in the text message is listed here. There are text-only deal’s sometimes, but there will be a mention of these on the website.
For emails, do not click on any links or download any files. Instead, go directly to the organization’s website. See if the information in the email matches up with information from the website.
The reason it is suggested that you go to the organization’s website directly is that often the links given in the text message or email may be to a spoofed site. It will look like the actual site, however, there will be a few differences to pick up on, like the address showing in the url box. Links to other pages for the site, like the customer support page, may also be spoofed.
Just keep in mind when you want to donate to an organization, to go to them directly. It’s the best way to make sure your donation goes to them and not a cybercriminal.
Comentários