Bonza Mobile Computer Repairs

Gone Phishin’

No scam will work without your cooperation! If you can be convinced into thinking you’re doing something legitimate, then the scam worked!

Be alert to any emails asking you to:  update, change, verify, confirm, etc.

They might appear to come from your bank or financial institution, a company you regularly do business with, such as Microsoft, or they might even appear to be from someone you know!

They can include official-looking logos and other identifying information taken directly from legitimate web sites, and they might include convincing details about your personal information that scammers took from your social networking pages.

They might include links to fake web sites where you are asked to enter personal information.

Watch out for email subject lines like:
Security alert!
Account notification!
Please confirm your data!
Online banking notification…
Necessary to be read!
Important notice.
Important security notice.
Account secure confirmation customer service: security alert….
Update your account.
Confirm your email.
DHL delivery service. Get your parcel NR.12345

“We suspect an unauthorized transaction on your account. To ensure that your account is not compromised, please click the link below and confirm your identity.”

“During our regular verification of accounts, we couldn’t verify your information. Please click here to update and verify your information.”

At first glance, they look legitimate e-mails from a company with whom you do business. The “From” field of the e-mail may have the .com address of the company mentioned in the e-mail, and the clickable link may also appear to be taking you to the company’s web site, but will in fact take you to a fake site.

Phishing e-mails can appear to be from any bank, PayPal, eBay, credit card companies, and online stores, basically from anywhere a person may have registered for an account, and usually would have supplied financial information when registering.

If you’re a “key happy” person (one who hits keyboard keys and shouts “argghhhh, nooooo” a lot!)  Pause!

Think about it, no legitimate company or bank will ask you to give sensitive data or personal details via an email, ever.

And legitimate companies will already have all your sensitive details anyway!

If you’re still in doubt, and you have a nagging feeling it could be a legitimate e-mail, don’t click any links in the message and don’t phone if there’s a number in the email.

Contact the organization mentioned in the email using a telephone number you know to be genuine, or open a new Internet browser session and type in the company’s correct web address yourself. You can always phone Bonza for advice too.

 Here are a couple of other nasty tricks by “phishers”.

Links in their email can take you to a legitimate site and a sneaky popup will ask you for personal info.

Take you to a fake site which has an URL that’s very similar to the real site.

They can even cover up the address window in your browser with an image that makes it look as if you’re at the real site. If you can’t click into the window, it’s fake.

Don’t ya love the internet!

DELETE THE EMAIL IMMEDIATELY!

Tags: email phishing, email scams, phishing, phishing scams