Today, I received a scamming letter that seemed almost alright. It was supposedly from a fellow retiree asking for money to help deal with an emergency. The email address looked right. Almost everything matched but it felt wrong. I asked her to phone me so I could identify her by voice. She never called but her next email asked for the money to deal with a family medical problem. I asked for contact info on PayPal as well as the patient's name and the doctor's name. The next email asked to have it sent Western Union or Moneygram. Still no phone call.

On a hunch, I called her phone. She told me she had been hacked. I then noticed that the edress was slightly wrong.

It's the Holiday season--the time our guards are somewhat down and scammers get wild.

Contact the credit reporting agencies and put a freeze on your account unless you give them a code which they will supply to allow the use of your information.

Do not open links that look wrong or attachments from people you do not know.

Do not send group mails to everyone in the open; use the Bcc function on your email, not the cc.

Change your password to a stronger code--it's probably due anyway.

Raise your security level. It's probably too low.

Remember--You are the first line of defense against the bad guys.