Gift card and voucher scams: If anyone — a caller, a “family member” in a text, a supposed government official — asks you to pay using iTunes, Google Play, or other gift cards, it is a scam, every single time. No legitimate organisation asks for payment this way.

The AI voice-clone family emergency: As described above — a caller sounds exactly like a loved one, often with background noise or an excuse for sounding different, urgently needing money and asking you to keep it secret. This is also done via a WhatsApp message or text messages.

The one trick that stops all of it: Whatever the scam, whatever the story, the advice is the same: Never act in the moment. Always verify independently.

• If it’s a bank, hang up and call the number on the back of your card
• If it’s “the government,” hang up and call the department using the number from their official website
• If it’s a family member in trouble, hang up and call them back directly on their known number
• Never transfer money, buy gift cards, or give personal details to someone who called you.

Tech Tip — Time to stop reusing your password: If you’re using the same password for your email, your banking, and Facebook – you need to take action.

Here’s why it matters: if one of those websites has a data breach (and many have, without you even knowing), scammers get your password and immediately try it everywhere else. One leaked password can open every door.

The fix: a password manager. A password manager is an app that creates and remembers strong, unique passwords for every website — so you only need to remember one master password yourself.

A few well-regarded options:

• Built into your phone already — iPhones have this built in via Settings → Passwords. Android and Chrome have Google Password Manager built in too.
• Bitwarden — free, works across phone and computer, well regarded for ease of use.
• 1Password — paid, very polished, popular with families who want to share passwords securely.

You don’t need anything fancy — even just using the password manager already built into your phone is a big step up from writing passwords in a notebook or reusing “Fluffy1234!” everywhere.

Combined with the two-factor authentication we covered a couple of months back, a password manager rounds out the basics of keeping your accounts secure.

Yvonne Lee.