Welcome to Lakeland Cybersafe!

This new website was launched in September 2026 with the single simple purpose of helping Lakeland residents - individuals, families, and small businesses - enhance their online security posture. That's fancy terminology for "staying safe on the Internet".

Despite the presence of some amount of technology, cybersafety has a lot more to do with human psychology than with computers, as well as the ability to identify the tell-tale signs of a "scam-in-progress" early on.

Some of the victims of cyber-crime are tech-savvy individuals while many more are comfortable with computers and smartphones. What the scammers rely upon time after time are simple principles of "social engineering". That's fancy-speak for "manipulation, lies, deceit, and trickery".

The variety of scams cyber-criminals continue to invent year after year boil down to certain themes:

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  Creating a sense of urgency.

  • "Your account is being hacked into right now. I'm calling from the fraud prevention department."
  • "Your grandson is under arrest and we need $10,000 to post bail immediately."


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  Demonstrating knowledge of who you are - mentioning your name and other details.

  • "I will send a 6-digit code to your phone number (863) 123-4567 in order to verify you."
  • "Is your residential address still at 45678 Hollingsworth Dr?"


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  Sounding authoritative.

  • "I'm calling from the Superior Court regarding a felony charge for not appearing for jury duty."
  • "I'm calling from the US Postal Inspection Service, a department inside the USPS."


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  I'm here to help you.

  • "I will help you secure your account before the hackers get their hands on your money."
  • "Your computer is infected with the killer virus. I will help you clean it up."

Becoming aware of these common themes and patterns goes a long way in stopping a scam-in-progress in its tracks.

Add to it a little help from an anti-malware program/app, a VPN, and other defenses and protections, and you'll be out of a scammer's reach.

Check out the content on this site, and enter the "cybersafe mindset"!