Internet Scams

Wow, have I been busy.

At any rate, I wanted to take a moment out and talk about Internet scams. I am speaking to those of you out there that are not complete nerds. In saying so, I promise to speak English and keep the Nerdese to a bare minimum.

You see, the threats out there have multiplied and become both sophisticated and devious. If you are not careful, you could end up very unhappy. The good news here is; With just a little bit of common sense you can keep yourself safe.

Phishing- I hope you have heard this term by now. Basically, this is a scam to lure you into providing sensitive information about yourself. The typical scam involves an email that appears to be from a bank, paypal, eBay, the government or some official source. The email is a fraud and if you click on any of the links contained in the email, you will be directed to the scam artist's site. This will be a replica of the site indicated in the email (Wells Fargo for instance), there will be a form that will require you to fill out your personal information. This could be anything from your SSN to just a simple user name/password...

Think about it. The con-artist now knows where you bank, your user name and your password... Or worse, your Social Security Number. This leads us to our next paragraph...

Identity theft... Once a con-artist has your information, they can do any number of things. By the time you have uncovered the fraud, it is too late, the damage is done and you are left holding the bag. Imagine getting stuck with the bill for a new Porsche. It will be up to you to clear it up. The crooks out there are way ahead of the law which hasn't even gotten it's pants on regarding electronic crime... If you want to buy yourself some added security talk to the folks at http://www.prepaidlegal.com/ they will monitor your credit and help you clear it up if needs be.

Here are a few tips to help you stay safe.

• Be very leery of email.
• Banks are not going to contact you via email.
• Nobody needs you to help them transfer money out of their country.
• If you mouse over (hover your mouse over) a link and it goes to a strange address, it is most likely bogus.
• When in doubt call the institution in question to verify the validity of an email.
• Never use the links provided in an email. Always log on to the site directly. If there is a problem, believe me, there will be a red flag somewhere on the site once you log in.

Remember this is big money. There are virtually no convictions or even arrests for cyber-fraud. This attracts some clever thieves. The emails have become alarmingly realistic and diverse. I have seen the following phishing scams in my inbox:

• eBay Unpaid Item Strike. This appears to be an unpaid item strike from eBay. However, you have not purchased anything lately... This email contains a link to dispute the strike. Of course, the thief is attempting to get your ebay login info. With this information they can do a number of things. Most likely they will sell bogus items with your account. After they receive the money, they are gone and you get the bad feedback/hassle of clearing the matter up.
  
• FBI Investigation This scam is an email informing you that the FBI is investigating fraudulent transactions with your social security number, identity, credit cards etc... It (or a link) will ask you for personal information to help solve the "crime". Guess what. If they get your drivers license number, or social, they have you. Imagine getting arrested for something somebody else did using your social or driver licence number. What are you going to say?
  "It wasn't me! You've got the wrong guy.".
  "Sure pal, save it for the jury... Watch your head..."
  
• Nigerian 419 This one will state that the author who is in some other country and has somehow come into a large or undisclosed amount of money. They need help tranferring it out of the country... This scam is looking for you to either open a account with anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars(after all they are going to trust you with millions right?) or simply provide them with your account number... Guess how long it will take them to empty the account and vanish into thin air...
  
• PayPal Payment Confirmation This one is a bogus PayPal payment confirmation. Similar to the eBay scam, it will have a dispute transaction link to a phoney login page. Once they have your PayPal information it is time to go shopping... Careful here, this one looks authentic...
  
• You have won! This con-email informs you that you have won a contest or some such thing. When you go to the page to claim your prize the crook claims your personal information.
  

Additionally, if this wasn't enough to worry about, some email will contain links or attachments that will install various spyware viruses when clicked...

Good luck, stay safe and use your head friends.

Best Regards,

Marc Everlove