Phishing and scam emails are getting ‘smarter’

Posted in Consumer Corner Friday, 23 July 2010 at 11:51 am by Kate

What should you do when you get a “phishing” email or end up on a scam website? Hopefully, the information I’ll be putting in today’s blog will assist you and help show who to report the scam to, or how you can track down the scammers yourself and work to help shut down their scam-collecting ways, at least temporarily. We’ve seen scams targeting eBay, PayPal your banks and more.

Sometimes, scammers try to scare you by saying your account is in arrears, or your account needs updating, and you think to yourself, I better follow this through!

NO bank. Paypal Ebay or any other company will ever ask you for personal information in an email OR ask for your password!!!!!

First and most importantly, if you’re unsure if an email from Paypal or anyone else you use your banking numbers online, do not click it open.

You should only follow these steps if you have some experience with web and email issues.Look at the html source of the email message or the web form.
In the html code, look for

If the form action starts with "http://..." then the results are being processed on a separate server.

You will also want to look for a hidden field below the tag that will look something like this:

This is the email address that will receive the results of the form.

A legitimate email from Paypal will start with https:
same as with bank or ebay or any secure company you log in with. all start with https:

But to be safest-never log in from an email you recieve. Go directly to your bank’s site, Paypal’s site etc and log in from there. If there is a transaction it will appear once you’ve done your secure log-in.

Very Important! If you have clicked any links via email and have entered your password or any other personal information and feel you have been duped follow these instructions.

If you move fast you might be able to head off the use of some of your information.

Change Your Password

If you filled out one of these scam forms and entered any password information – change it immediately.

While you’re logged into your account, check your transaction history, if possible, to see if there are any fraudulent entries.

Contact the Company

Call or email the fraud department of the company involved and let them know that your account might be compromised.

Call Your Bank and Credit Card Companies

You should call to see if any fraudulent transactions have shown up and to possibly arrange for new cards or accounts.

Is That It?

If you entered your Social Insurance/Security Number, Date of Birth, Address, etc into the form, you will need to follow these steps to avoid being a potential victim of identity theft.

You can forward any suspicious emails to paypal, your bank and ebay.
spoof@paypal.com
spoof@ebay.com
and whichever bank you deal with, they will have information where to send the suss emails.

Many scammers are getting much cleverer. They use your real name and address the emails to you now. That is one way people are being caught out!

It’s worth taking the time to log in through your Paypal site etc…do not trust any links in your emails.

Routinely review your statements

Review your bank and credit card statements monthly for unexplained charges or inquiries that you didn’t initiate.

Make sure you use up to date email software with anti-phishing capabilities.

Install up-to-date antivirus and antispyware software.

Sounds like a lot-but you need to keep yourself safe.

and remember-you will never really win a million pounds from anyone in Nigeria (or anywhere else in the world for that matter)

Nothing is for free-and if someone is offering you something to good to be true-DELETE them!

I hope this has helped understand phishing and how to stop it from hurting you!

Kate

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