Don’t Fall Prey to Scammers

Having grown up in today’s digital era being educated on the dangers of the Internet, most of us would most likely claim, “I’m smarter than those scams, I know how to spot one when I see one!” Same. Little do I realise that I actually have been tricked in the most sly and subtle ways of the new breed of scammers. Here’s why millennials are still getting fooled

Firstly, millennials spend ridiculous amounts of time on their phone. According to eMarketer, the average millennial spends at least 4 hours on their phone on an average weekday. Most of this time is dedicated to texting. It has been inbred to millennials to flip their phone over or to whip it out of their pocket once a familiar ring beckons them to check the message or pick up the call. It is no wonder why this would be the primary mode of attack for scammers who penetrate the digital world of millennials and use the method of “robocalls”. This happens when your phone reflects that a U.S. number is calling you, but after one ring, hangs up. The confused victim would then call the number back, which happens to be an expensive international call. A study by Truecaller shows that “27 million Americans lost approximately $7.4 billion in phone scams last year”.

As mentioned earlier, millennials love to stay connected, wherever and whenever they can. This is exactly why certain coffee shops, malls and restaurants offer free Wi-Fi. While this is indeed a good marketing tool and there is nothing wrong with using public Wi-Fi itself, one should be careful about what you do on these unsecured network. Hackers and tech-whizzes can access private information when you make transaction while online shopping or even logging in to mobile bank accounts or even personal accounts that require passwords. An open door allows access in both directions, and so often, millennials fall victim to this, not exempting myself.

The worst kind of scams are those that manipulate the goodness of one’s character to gain monetary means. While millennials are not the only ones to get scammed by such means, it happens more so to them because of the lack of healthy skepticism that Generation X has. Coupled with this is the laziness that comes into researching the legitimacy, cause, and budget of some of these “charitable organisations”. As a result, scammers use their increasingly subtle ways of exploiting victims with their money.

No matter how prepared you think you are for the next sly scheme or how well you can outsmart a scammer, there will always be ways that they can outwit you. Acknowledging that the online world is a dangerous and scary place is the best mentality you can have in fighting cyber dangers.

feature image credits: https://www.trapcall.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/no-caller-id-iphone-.jpg

Homeschooler in the Real World

Emma Folts, a sophomore at Wheaton College, shares her experience about her transition into college and how homeschool has both helped and hindered her.
How has your homeschool experience benefitted you, especially in your transition into college?
I think the one thing that homeschooling did that was really helpful as I entered college was that it taught me time management. As a homeschooler I had the same freedom as a college student has to put things off during the day and go see a friend instead. Since I had that experience, I knew the cost of that.
Also, personal responsibility and accountability with assignments. I feel like a lot of the other students had more expectations for gentler grading and that the professor would give them retakes or extensions, but that wasn’t something that ever happened to me in school. That learning curve wasn’t added because I never had it the other way. I think another thing was that because I was homeschooled, I was familiar with the format of teaching and then studying on my own.
Did you see any issues with your transition socially?
I think that homeschooling had two ramifications for me socially. One was helpful, one was hurtful.
It was really helpful because as a homeschooler, I had spent a lot of time realizing and developing who I was as a person and learning to recognize people who were being themselves, and those were the people I sought out as friends. Friendship as a homeschooler takes a lot more investment. I knew I was choosier with my friends which made me a lot less anxious and a lot more content.
The only real negative impact of the social bit was that I was really used to getting to choose the time I got to spend with people. As a homeschooler I spent a lot of time with people, but that time was controlled by me. As a college student, I found that you can’t really control the time you spend with people and alone time is not really available. Learning to deal with that was a lot harder than anticipated.
Any last comments on homeschool and how it has affected your college experience?
I think homeschooling is really helpful, however it does take a slightly increased amount of advocacy with your peers when you’re entering into college. I think a lot of people come in with certain assumptions about homeschool, especially students. You’re going to get a lot of, ‘oh my gosh, you don’t seem like a homeschooled person!’ [You can’t] take that too personally and explain your experience so that friends can understand it’s an important piece of you, though it might not look like the homeschooling that they’ve seen.
My encouragement to anyone who is a homeschooler transitioning into college is to realize the benefit that you have having been homeschooled, and to realize that the bit of advocacy and explaining that you need to do with your peers is totally normal and that it’s not a big deal. Once they understand your experience, it’s not something I’ve experienced being looked down on for.