PADUCAH — A local cybersecurity company plans to hold an event to raise awareness of online scams in the Paducah community.
Executive Vice President of SOMA Cyber Inc. Johnny Sanders said the company plans to host a cyberfraud and scam awareness session on July 25 at the Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce. The session is aimed at elderly individuals, who Sanders said were at high risk for these scams. The session goes over ways to identify and avoid common scams.
Johnny Sanders is said he was inspired to host the scam awareness seminar after viewing FBI statistics showing how many elderly individuals where falling victim to online fraud.
“It’s very important to understand this is happening to your neighbors, this is not just some big city far away from here,” Sanders said. “This whole event lets us just educate that environment and hopefully make them a little sharper and be able to identify those scam emails a little quicker.”
SOMA Cyber is a Paducah-based cybersecurity company which aims to help businesses and individuals safeguard their information and remain protected from digital threats. The company was established by Sanders and co-founder Brandon Bailes in 2023.
A local cyber security company plans to hold an event raising awareness of online scams in the Paducah community.
Sanders said new technology like ChatGPT has been a game changer for scams and fraudsters. AI has made generating phishing emails, which are emails impersonating real institutions in an attempt to get someone’s personal information, easier for anyone to do.
Sanders also said recent international conflicts have increased the number of cyberattacks against countries from state agents and hacking groups. These attacks often target infrastructure like hospitals, water and energy services. Sanders said he had received multiple calls in recent weeks from individuals about attacks like these, but wanted people to be aware that cyber threats are always a problem even outside of war.
Businesses and school districts are at risk for cyberattacks, Sanders said. These often take the form of ransomware that tries to blackmail companies by sabotaging internet infrastructure. Sanders said many businesses don’t have the money to invest in cybersecurity defense, and attackers are aware of this.
Sanders advice for people looking to stay safe online is to activate multi-factor identification for every website they are logged on to. Also, be careful with which sites you give access to payment and credit card information. Sanders said that even sites which aren’t malicious, but just poorly secured, can risk giving your personal information to hackers.
Sanders said his biggest piece of advice was to avoid messages that seem too good to be true. He said scammers will often pretend to be giving out large prizes or gifts to lure victims in. Other times they impersonate ordinary people and attempt to form a relationship, often romantic, with the victim and request money then.
“At the end of the day, I think everybody needs to admit they’re a target,” Sanders said. “If you can admit you’re a target, you can start talking about the methods you need to put in place to prevent it.”
Sanders also recommended people to talk to their parents, grandparents, or other older family members to make them aware of these scams, and teach them to avoid it.
SOMACybers fraud awareness event is free to attend and will be held at 9 a.m. Friday, July 25. Tickets and more information are available on EventBrite.
