For those of a certain age, the internet remains somewhat of a digital mystery.
It’s also virtually inhabited by unscrupulous individuals waiting to prey on the uninformed or naïve.
And that misstep usually exacts a monetary price.
Some of these scammers also look for people in vulnerable situations, like those recent victims of Hurricane Ian. They may demand up-front money for services never completed, or simply never show up at all.
But natural disasters like hurricanes or tornadoes — though ripe for ripoffs — are one-time events, the icing on the cake.
The unintentional stumbling into compromising situations constitute everyday occurrences on the world wide web, the scammers’ sweet spot.
No matter the many public-service warnings issued, bogus schemes taking advantage of well-intentioned individuals continue to occur.
And when you least expect it, another one seems to pop up.
That’s what can happen when surfing the internet. A wipeout there could seriously deplete one’s bank account — or life’s savings.
That’s what happened to a Maine couple — just one victim of an ongoing scam that’s caught countless others in the same trap.
According to an FBI report, that couple hit upon a website that informed them their computer had been hacked, exposing their financial information.
To rectify the situation, an individual purportedly with Fidelity Investments told the couple to download a certain fraud-monitoring software on their computer.
Unfortunately,…