Paul Pioselli has lived in Westport for 3 years. He blends a passion for community with expertise in personal cybersecurity.
Paul Pioselli
As the founder of Solace – Truly Personal Cybersecurity — a local concierge cybersecurity firm — he helps residents safeguard their digital lives, financial assets, and privacy.
When not advising clients he’s active in local safety initiatives, charity road races, and technology mentorship groups. Paul writes:
As a Westport resident and founder of Solace – Truly Personal Cybersecurity, I’ve had a front row seat to how quickly digital threats are changing, and how often our own community is targeted.
In recent months, Westport Police have sounded the alarm on a steep rise in scams aimed squarely at residents, particularly older adults. Nearly every day we hear reports of cybercriminals using sophisticated impersonation tactics. They include:
- Fake toll violation notices
- Urgent calls claiming a relative has been injured
- False accusations of money laundering or other financial crimes.
A Westport couple recently called me after receiving a convincing voicemail claiming to be from local police. The message warned that they’d missed a jury summons, and a warrant had been issued. The “officer” even provided a badge number, and directed them to a website payment portal to “clear the warrant” immediately.
Police will never call about a jury duty summons.
Fortunately, they paused long enough to contact Solace before any money changed hands. A brief analysis by our team confirmed it was a scam.
In 2024, Connecticut residents lost an estimated $90 million to fraud, up from $70 million the year before. Nationwide, imposter scams alone caused $789 million in losses. Email remains the top delivery method for online scammers, followed closely by phone calls and texts.
Scam are increasingly harder to spot, but here are several warning signs to help you steer clear:
- Unexpected calls, texts, or emails demanding immediate payment
- Payment requests in the form of gift cards, wire transfers, or cryptocurrency
- Caller ID showing a police station or government office you’ve never dealt with
- Messages designed to spark fear, urgency, or promises of large rewards
- Website URLs with small but suspicious differences such as a single extra letter
- Email and text messages with poor grammar or formatting
- Requests for personal or financial details over the phone or text message.
Best practice: Pause before acting on any unexpected request, no matter how urgent or convincing it may seem. Verify its legitimacy using a trusted, independent source.
Netflix would never start an email “Hi Dear.” They would not say you “may want to” update your payment details. And they would not refer you to a “Help Centre”; it would be spelled “Center.”
While imposter scams dominate the statistics, our team has also helped Westport residents deal with:
- Viruses and spyware compromising personal devices
- Email and online account takeovers that damage reputations
- Identity theft and phishing campaigns stealing sensitive data
- Phone SIM-swapping attacks to hijack phone numbers and bypass security codes.
This isn’t random. Affluent ZIP codes like ours attract cybercriminals who believe residents have more to lose.
To stay safe:
- Validate phone calls and text messages. Call the organization directly, using a trusted phone number.
- Use strong passwords and multi-factor authentication. Incorporate more characters, digits and symbols to your passwords, and turn on multi-factor authentication everywhere.
- Limit sharing of personal information online. Ensure appropriate privacy settings on social media, and limit posting of personally identifiable information.
- Educate your household. Make sure everyone is aware of scam red flags.
There are several types of multi-factor authenticataion. Two involve sending a code to your smartphone, or pinging it.
From our office in Darien, we offer concierge personal cybersecurity services to Westport residents. They include:
- Emergency cyber response if you’re hacked or scammed
- Personal cybersecurity consulting to protect accounts and digital footprint
- In-person and virtual security audits that secure devices and data
- Digital privacy and data removal to help prevent identity theft and scams.
In today’s digitally connected world, personal cybersecurity is essential. If something feels off, trust your instincts. Remember these red flags and tips.
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Great advice. I’m sure not having any social media helps too. All my passwords are Woog4Potus, so who could possibly steal that? I’ll need to change my passwords now,,,, I’ll think of a good one.
At this point everyone has a story. It really sucks. I would only add that if you are “younger” you should make sure that anyone in your life who is “older” is aware of basic safety tips. Seniors are the most vulnerable among us. Here’s a stat: The FTC reports that the number of Americans 60 or older who lost $100,000 or more to fraud in a single year has more than tripled—from about 1,300 in 2020 to 4,600 in 2023.
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