PHOENIX — School is about to be back in session for students across Arizona.
It’s is exciting time of year for students: new digs, new friends, new adventures.
Naturally, this tends to bring about a lot of distractions, making them targets for cyber criminals selling fake credit cards, according to Ken Colburn with Data Doctors.
“(Scammers) basically just slip their very creative, very sophisticated offers that look exactly like the legitimate offers,” Colburn said.
To complicate matters further, Colburn says young people may have statements sent to temporary addresses and often have a limited credit history, making fraud more difficult to detect. So he recommends students turn on a two-factor identification.
“If you don’t turn it on, it’s like having a debit card with no pin. Somebody gets the card they can take all your money. So turn on two-factor identification for every single online account.”
And make sure those passwords are strong, Colburn said.
As far as protecting your devices themselves from theft, Colburn recommends a third-party tracking system. He says thieves almost always turn off the find my iPhone app.
“And you have to arm your students with this knowledge,” Colburn said, “so that they have the ability to sniff out and see the red flags ahead of time.”