Tackle it Tuesday: Financial Exploitation (Part 1.5)

May 6, 2025

Welcome to Tackle It Tuesday, a social media series where an autistic employee at AAoM (yours truly) writes workplace (and now more!) tips to better cope with the stresses of a world not built for neurodiversity.

This Tackle it Tuesday is on financial exploitation. Well, the next part of likely three(ish) entries: phishing scams. This is only a brief overview, as scams evolve so rapidly that it’s hard to keep track. At the end of this entry, I will provide further resources to help you spot different kinds of scams I didn’t mention.

An image on a green background. At the bottom of the image, there is an image of a smartphone, and a person in a blue sweater holding a phone in shock. A light yellow shockwave is coming out of the phone to symbolize aggression. The text reads: "Tackle it Tuesday: Phishing Scams Phishing scams have gotten much more sophisticated in recent years, particularly with the rise of AI voices and chatbots. Here are some ways to keep yourself safe."

An image on a green background. On the bottom left, there is an image of a webpage of a utility website showing its phone number and email. At the bottom of that image, there is text that reads "I swear most official websites look better than this. " The text reads: "Tackle it Tuesday: Phishing Scams If you want to call any customer service, please go to the official website of the service you use (look it up on Google and skip the sponsored links and AI up top) and type in the number exactly. Compare it multiple times if needed, as there are cases of scammers using numbers or URLs close to the real ones incase of a misdial."

An image on a green background. The text reads: "Tackle it Tuesday: Phishing Scam Paying If someone pressures you to send money to them through these services, especially if you don’t know them, don’t trust it. Zelle CashApp Venmo PayPal family and friends This is because you cannot get your money back from “personal” money transfers on these platforms. A legitimate business will send an invoice, which lets you get a refund."

An image on a green background. In the middle of the image, there is a gold coin representing cryptocurrency and a red gift card. The text reads: "Tackle it Tuesday: Phishing Scam Paying Never, ever, trust someone who wants you to pay for a product or service in gift cards or cryptocurrency. Scammers do this so that they can hide the fact they’re stealing money, and to make refunds harder (if not impossible)"

An image on a green background. On the bottom right, there is a person in a blue sweater, the same one in the first image, tapping their phone to end a call, symbolized by a speech bubble saying "BUY NOW" The text reads: "Tackle it Tuesday: Rushing Again, if you are rushed into spending money or signing up for something, do not trust it. A proper service would be willing to wait for you to make an informed decision. "

An image on a green background. The text reads: "Tackle it Tuesday: Phone/Email Scams If the same people keep calling you from more than one phone number, this is a huge red flag. A real business calls from one number, and that number should be easy to access on that business’s website (except for tech support numbers, which are notoriously hard to find for no reason). This goes for emails too: look for spelling errors in any email or email address sent to you."

An image on a green background. On the bottom left, there is a blue, glitching person that says "Help me, send $" The text reads: "Tackle it Tuesday: AI/Attachment Scams AI has some boons, but it can be used to impersonate others. Whether it’s a famous person, an invented personality for the sake of getting you to think they’re real, or even someone you know (this can happen, especially with companies selling data), scammers can use these tactics to get under your skin."

An image on a green background. The text reads: "If you’re asked to give personal information, the details to your bank accounts or other places that store your money, or are asked to do anything outlined in the previous slides, do not trust it. Doesn’t matter who it is, or what the story/situation is. If it sounds too good to be true, or too sad to be true, it likely is."
This also goes for social security numbers or any identifying information.

Here are some more resources!

A landing page of types of scams funded by the Australian government, each with ways you can fight against them if you encounter them.

https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/types-of-scams

Where to report if you’ve fallen victim to a scam in America

https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/

Scams that are commonly found on the app Discord, more common with younger targets.

https://discord.com/safety/understanding-and-avoiding-common-scams

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