Are you smarter than a scammer? Take this quiz. (wapo.st)

submitted 10 months ago by Peaces@infosec.pub to c/technology@beehaw.org

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Take this quiz to find out if you can spot what’s real and what’s fake

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[-] ArtificialLink@yall.theatl.social 50 points 10 months ago

This quiz is dumb af. The two that weren't scams didn't give you enough info to identify if they aren't and they both just as likely to be scams? And at the end they said it was still possible for me to get scammed even though I called every single item a scam. How am i gonna get scammed if i assume they are all scams?

[-] davehtaylor@beehaw.org 13 points 10 months ago

Exactly. There was no context.

Did the person actually sign up for GeekSquad AV? They didn't say.

Does the person actually have a Facebook account? They didn't say.

Plus I always assume anything that references Facebook in an email is a scam.

It's never a bad thing to be overly cautious when it comes to this stuff

[-] dark_stang@beehaw.org 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

If you take the quiz it all you don't get a 100%. That's the real test.

[-] ArtificialLink@yall.theatl.social 6 points 10 months ago

That doesn't make sense. Don't trust Washington post either? Got it.

[-] dark_stang@beehaw.org 13 points 10 months ago

It was a joke but no, I don't trust a news organization owned by Jeff Bezos.

[-] LinkOpensChest_wav@lemmy.one 6 points 10 months ago

Honestly, I did pretty well (except the last one which I had no way of knowing was a legitimate web site -- and what the hell kind of name is that for a legitimate site anyway? But I digress...), but I would have taken steps to verify every single one of these before taking any further action. I just inherently distrust email and SMS messages.

[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

How am i gonna get scammed if i assume they are all scams?

Because presumably you still interact with society as opposed to going full unibomber, and so you can't do that.

The two that weren’t scams didn’t give you enough info to identify if they aren’t and they both just as likely to be scams?

They were

spoiler

a real bank statement and a real settlement.

It'd be weird if they weren't something that applied to you but it's still not a scam, and they explain how to tell.

[-] ArtificialLink@yall.theatl.social 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

The article and quiz talk specifically about these types of vectors for scams. If i assume they are all scams there is a zero % chance i get scanned in this way. Even on the two not a scams they talked about better alternatives to ensure their authenticity which i would have done as soon as i saw any of these "scams" its just a poorly written article that just assumes any wrong answers mean you are more likely to be scammed. I understand there is no way to 100% avoid being scams especially if you just out in the world but the answer from the article is dumb.

Edit: also the censored info made it impossible to tell if it was real.

[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 10 months ago

I actually did search the second one to confirm it's real, and the first is from a domain I know. I've gotten messages like the first, if I assumed they were all scams that would probably backfire.