(tranquil music) - Scams are always being reinvented.

They'll take an old scam and just update it.

Some of the hot things that we see quite often right now is the tech repair scam.

They're gonna notify you either by telephone, text message, or even an onscreen popup that there's a issue with your device or your network.

They're gonna be an imposter scam.

They're gonna pretend to be Apple, Google, maybe Norton Antivirus, but it's not them, it's a scam artist, and they're gonna advise you that you need to enter some characters on your keyboard.

That's giving them remote access.

Then they can hide spyware inside the background of your network and have access to all your information.

Immediately stop and think.

The very first thing they want you to do is to stay connected to the internet.

I'm telling you, the very first thing you should do is break that connection.

Disconnect from the internet, power it down.

Do not provide information or follow instructions until you can verify.

Some of the other scams that I think are really big is the grandparent scam, or family member in distress.

You get a phone call, "Grandma, I'm in some kind of trouble.

I've been arrested, I've been in an accident.

I caused an accident.

Don't tell mom and dad."

But they need money.

It always comes down to money or information is what's needed, and the minute you hear that, you know it's a scam.

Don't give out information.

Put that call on hold.

Contact your family.

Find out where your grandchild is, and make sure they're okay and safe.

We have a new issue called artificial intelligence, or AI.

A human simply has to type in a couple of key words or phrases.

"Grandma, I'm in trouble," you get that phone call.

Well, now it's going to be your grandchild's voice, and you think, oh, it must be Jimmy.

It may not be.

All they need is five to seven seconds of a human voice sample.

That will be your grandson's voice asking for help, and it's gonna be very believable.

It's the right pitch, tone, rhythm of speech.

It is perfect.

And I guess the biggest simple tip is, don't answer the phone.

If it's not someone in your contacts that you have entered and saved, there's no need to answer that call.

(tranquil music) - I have been on Facebook for a number of years, but I never, ever accept friend requests from someone I don't know.

And whether I was lonely, or just feeling a little frivolous that day, whatever, I hit the accept button, and it changed my life.

I think one of the things that made me click on that accept friendship button is, there were two pictures accompanying this request, and they were of a very handsome man, dressed like a doctor.

He said he had read my profile and liked the same things that I did, reading, gardening, dogs.

I mean, there wasn't anything out of the way about it.

It was just, he would call me every day and say, "How was your day, honey?"

No one has said that to me since my husband died.

And one of the things I've learned about scams is, in a romance scam, the scammer gets romantic early on, and so did this, he told me his name was Tony.

The red flags were, number one, the not being able to talk to him face to face, even though he had an explanation for it, because he had two younger children, they were 12 and 15.

Tony did not ask me for any money for several months into this relationship.

And by that point, I trusted him, which I'm sure that was his motive, was to get me to trust him.

These folks are very patient.

Now, the way the money started was, his daughter sent me an email, frantic that she was sick and had no money, and could I help her.

So I called Tony and said she was sick and what have you, and he asked me if I could get her a gift card.

"Please just go get her, and I'll pay you back, just go get her a gift card."

So I did, and I emailed it to her.

And before I got up from the computer, I checked the balance and it was already down to zero.

So they had snatched that money right off.

The financial loss was devastating, truly devastating to me, but the loss of that love that I had opened myself up to again, just, it broke my heart, and I cried.

So if you have even a little inkling that something is off, go with that feeling, because it more than likely is a scam.

I didn't know at the time that there were parameters I could've put on my Facebook, that I could've made it a private profile so that only my friends and family could see what I put up.

I had it open to the world.

So it's no wonder I got scammed like this.

They are well trained.

They know what buttons to push for you, and they know what answers to give for every protest or question you have.

It's a crime.

You are a victim of a crime.

So the first thing you really need to do is report it to your local police and ask them to make a report.

That's probably all they're gonna do, and that's okay, because you can't track these people down.

AARP has a wonderful fraud department.

You can call and talk to someone there.

There's support groups that are there, and you don't have to be a member of AARP to do that, which is nice.

But you really need to report this to the Department of Aging, Banking and Securities, the FTC, the FBI.

I mean, everybody you can think of, you need to report it, because there are millions of people being scammed, and billions of dollars being lost through this.

But remember, you're not alone.

There are so many other people who have been through this.

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