Protect yourself from cyber crimes; law enforcement shows you how

WAUKESHA, Wis. - There are criminals that can target you from anywhere. Now, the Waukesha County Sheriff's Department is trying to make sure everyone is safe online.

Rick McMillin is the IT Operations Manager for Waukesha County. 

"We see tens of thousands of these scam-type of emails coming into the county just to employees here," McMillin said. 

McMillin said cyber criminals are using the information you post on social media against you – to make victims think they are sharing passwords or financial information with people they know. 

"These criminals will compromise one person’s account and they’ll use that to gather information to try and compromise other individuals that the original person is in contact with," McMillin said. 

According to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, Wisconsinites lost more than $92 million in cyber crimes in 2023. Nearly 8,000 complaints were filed in that same time period – prompting a fraud alert in March. 

"It’s people stealing someone’s identity – but it’s also requesting somebody to go get Apple ID cards and facilitating it that way," said Capt. Nicholas Ollinger of the Waukesha County Sheriff's Department. 

Ollinger is trying to educate people about cybersecurity. The department is hosting a class for the community on Saturday, April 27.

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"Are you surprised by the number of people already signed up?" asked FOX6's Bret Lemoine. 

"We’ve exceeded the number of people that we initially thought would come," Ollinger answered.

FOX6 News recently told you about two separate Bitcoin scams where Waukesha County victims were out thousands of dollars. 

Ollinger said detectives follow all leads, but these types of crimes are not always open and shut. 

"They take a long time for getting subpoenaed for records and things like that," Ollinger said. 

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McMillin said there is one thing we can all do to protect ourselves now. Create long passwords and use two-factor authentication.

"We have statistics to show that a password that is not where it needs to be can be compromised in less than five minutes," McMillin said. 

Again, Saturday's class is already full. The county is not accepting any other registrations. The sheriff's department is considering another session in the coming months. 

Common fraud alert questions

FBI Milwaukee has put together a list of common fraud alert questions for consumers to assess whether they may have been targeted by scammers. They include the following: 

• Have you been asked to invest in a cryptocurrency platform or in gold futures?
• Has someone claiming to be a bank or government agency requested money, or for you to liquidate your accounts, in order to clear you of a crime to secure your accounts?
• Has someone claiming to be a tech or customer support representative requested money to remove a virus or child pornography from your computer or secure your account?
• Has someone contacted you claiming a family member is in danger or jail, and you must send money now to avoid further harm?
• Has someone you never met claimed to be romantically interested in you but requests you send them money or something else of value?
• Have you ever been directed to withdraw cash to purchase gold or silver bars to give someone else?
• Has someone sent individuals to your home or directed you to meet in a public place to drop off or pick up money, or other items of value, to deliver to an unknown person?
• Has someone asked you to obtain cash to either purchase gift cards or deposit in a cryptocurrency ATM—or given you a QR code to deposit money into an ATM?

If you answered "YES" to any of these questions, you are urged to visit ic3.gov for additional resources or to file a complaint with the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).