The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

7 | The IFP -H alton H ills | T hursday,N ovem ber 28,2019 theifp.ca THE WAY WE WERE This circa 1908 postcard shows the Barber Paper Mill, which was built on the Credit River in Georgetown in 1854. By 1888 the paper mill generated its own electricity, and was the first factory in North America to have its own generating plant. The mill closed in 1947. This year marks the 200th anniversary of the founding of Halton Hills (Esquesing township). EHS photo Telephone scams are nothing new. But they're out there, and becoming rampant. Most people are pretty trusting. When someone calls up and sounds genu- ine - well, it's easy to be trusting. Years ago, scammers targeted landlines. People, many of them seniors, were duped by someone posing as a family member in distress, pleading for them to send money or they're going to be incar- cerated in some prison for some ridiculous scenario. They'd target poor old Grandma, and the moment she answered, the caller would say, "Grandma, it's me! I need $2,000 or they're going to lock me up!" Poor old Grandma, who's never had this much stress piled on her in her entire life, is galvanized in- to action to bail out a grandchild she thinks is in dire straits. The scenarios were var- ied, but the end was the same: get someone to un- wittingly hand over money to an unscrupulous caller. The key to dealing with those people is to always take on the attitude, if it sounds bizarre, it's likely a scam. I don't accept callers at face value; they must earn my trust, or at least dem- onstrate some credibility. I'm not afraid to hang up halfway through their pre- sentation, for fear of hurt- ing their feelings. Every day thousands of innocent people are con- vinced to hand over money to a stranger on the phone. I feel sorry for some of them. They're simply naïve or too trusting. There are some victims who make me shake my head in disbelief, believing the Canada Revenue Agen- cy is on the phone, threat- ening to throw them into jail if they don't immedi- ately hand over thousands of dollars (payable in gift cards or bitcoins, no less). And those victims actu- ally transfer thousands to some untraceable ac- count. These scenarios are preventable, just by being wary of any call that seems unreal. But lately, the stakes have risen dramatically. I watched a story on CTV News, where a cell- phone user had her smart- phone hacked - with a new wrinkle. The scammers simply call your mobile phone company and impersonate you. They report your phone as being lost or sto- len. Your phone number is then linked to a new SIM card and device that the scammers have control over. It's called "SIM swap- ping," and through the scam, scammers have ac- cess to social media ac- counts, calendars, con- tacts and money. They can even apply for credit in your name or impersonate you to defraud your entire contact list. The victim in the CTV News story noticed her cellphone wasn't working and she figured it was a phone problem. When she called her cellphone company, she was told she'd called in the previous day and request- ed her number be trans- ferred to a new carrier. She'd made no such call. After realizing she'd been scammed, she con- tacted her credit card com- pany and learned that nearly $10,000 in charges had been applied to her credit card. The phone was never out of her possession for that entire time. The scam- mer had simply collected data from the phone, which was linked to her banking and credit card carrier - it was that easy. And the victim in this story had taken all the right precautions. So, we gotta be careful. The OPP recently re- leased a set of measures on how to avoid being scammed. Do not reply to phishing emails or text messages asking you to confirm or update your password. Don't publish your date of birth or address on so- cial media accounts. You might also want to contact your cellphone provider to ask about any additional security mea- sures that may be avail- able. And if you ever lose your phone, contact your service provider immedi- ately. Online banking and so- cial media are a huge con- venience in the communi- cation world today. But with the sophistication level of today's scammers, ya really gotta be smart. Ted Brown is a free- lance journalist for the IFP. He can be contacted at tedbit@hotmail.com. OPINION BEWARE OF PHONE SCAMS NOW MORE THAN EVER STAKES HAVE RISEN, WRITES TED BROWN TED BROWN Column