Online hackers and scammers may not destroy a life in the same sense that a murderer does, but the damage they inflict on innocent people is every bit as heinous. Within the past few months, four people in my orbit have been victimized, and it has turned their lives upside down. Someone I know was a victim of a romance scam that cost her in excess of six figures after fraudsters spent several months wooing her online. It ruined her health, and even though we intervened and tried to talk sense into her, she insisted these people were her friends, and they needed her help. Romance scammers prey on lonely seniors, widows, and divorcees. Victims are embarrassed, often ashamed, and refuse to believe that someone would blatantly want to defraud them.

The other day, a friend told me a member of her family had received an innocuous email to confirm their identity, exposing their entire personal and financial life to fraud. A few months ago, another acquaintance had the same thing happen, and she has been trying for weeks to untangle the mess, cancel accounts, create new ones, and generally build an entirely new, safe online life while trying to erase the tentacles of the old one.

It was only because someone recently related these stories to me that I was able to identify a similar scam that was perpetrated against me. Last week, I received an official-looking email from my bank asking me to confirm whether an online purchase in the amount of a few thousand dollars was legitimate. If not, I was directed to call a certain number. Obviously, the purchase was not one I had made, and the logical next step would have been to call the number. Had I done so, my entire online world would also have been compromised. Instead, I made a direct call to my bank, which confirmed the scam. I am very grateful to the person who forewarned me of this scam.

The level of sophistication that criminals employ these days is mind-boggling. Even university-educated business people can be conned, which leaves seniors, older boomers, and the general population particularly vulnerable. Much as I get impatient with the double verification steps required by banks to access my information online these days, it is obviously worth the trouble.

Even answering a random phone call can expose us to fraud. AI technology now allows hackers and scammers to replicate our voice to impersonate us for nefarious purposes. I’m beginning to see the wisdom in never answering the phone unless I recognize the caller’s name. Usually, the pause of a few seconds before a bot takes over the call is sufficient warning that I should not be answering this call and gives me the time to hang up.

I once overheard my husband turning over control of his laptop to a caller on the phone who claimed to be from Microsoft. Fortunately, hubby is not the least bit tech savvy, so when he summoned my help to perform certain steps in the process, I recognized it as a scam and slammed down the phone. Then, I changed our passwords to something more complicated. Untangling yourself and your personal business from these frauds is a living nightmare. The perpetrators are often individuals who are trafficked by organized crime and operate in isolated cells around the world.

A couple of years ago I had my wallet stolen from my handbag sitting on the floor under my chair in a restaurant. In retrospect, my suspicions should have been aroused when the woman at the next table moved her chair closer to my table. Fortunately, I carry my cards in a separate metal holder designed to thwart side-swipers who may try to scan my data as they pass me on the street, so the thief did not get my driver’s licence, credit cards and other identification. While that saved my bacon, I was still out the cash in the wallet and a nice, compact Roots™ red leather wallet. I have a metal hook that grips the edge of the table and suspends my purse next to my knee for safety in public places, which I neglected to use that day.

While so many tasks have been streamlined and made easier by technology, there’s also a price to be paid. So far, I have been relatively unbothered by nefarious forces, but I do get the occasional handsome surgeon working on an oil rig or a military colonel on deployment in Europe who would like to be my friend. I know I’m not that special, so I have no qualms about blocking their access to my site. At least the African princes have stopped pestering me to deposit their fortune into my bank account.

It’s a sad commentary on this old world that our personal safety is so fragile these days, and we know that the schemes will become increasingly more sophisticated and intrusive. Until governments grow the cajones to rein in the unfettered power of big tech companies and to put controls and hefty penalties on offenders, we cannot expect things to get any easier. Police forces at different levels do their best, but their resources are limited. We need laws and mechanisms that monitor the internet with the same vigilance they employ to oversee movies, television and radio. The tech giants should not be allowed to run free rein on our personal information and leave us so easily open to fraud and abuse. There are always those who will take a good thing and spoil it for the rest of us. Be careful out there, people. We are all vulnerable.