As Economy Falters, Phishing and Spam E-Mail Scams Surge
Phishing attacks -- essentially fake e-mails from familiar banks and other institutions masquerading as the real thing -- are on the rise, preying on people's panic about potential bank failures to get them to click through and enter their log-in details. Recent scam e-mails purporting to come from banks such as Chase and Washington Mutual are currently making the rounds.
Modern browsers like Firefox 3.0 and Internet Explorer 8 will warn you when you hit such bogus sites, but you can never be too careful. As always: Be wary of where you click, and if you're unsure that a given site is legit type in the URL to your bank by hand and log in from there. Think twice before reacting to some provocative e-mail subject line that's somehow related to protecting your financial assets, since those are precisely the sorts of phrases that are being used as bait by evildoing phishers. It's all too easy to fall prey to these tricks, so better to be safe than sorry. [From: USA Today]
Related Link:
12 Most Dangerous E-Mails
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Owen @ Oct 9th 2008 9:28PM
I hate to sound cynical but Moe of the Three Stooges wouldn't fall for most of the crap that circulates online. The problem is that there are far too many people with Internet access who can barely spell their own name much less discern legitmate e-mail from crapola. Wise up, America!
wterrietw0000 @ Oct 9th 2008 10:00PM
i got two today from hsbc myself.
R, MCKENZIE @ Oct 9th 2008 10:16PM
THERE IS A GOV EMAIL ADDRESS YOU CAN SEND ALL YOUR SPAM SENT YOU BY OTHER COUNTRIES SAYING YOU HAVE WON OUR COUNTRIES LOTTO, THE ADDRESS IS, SPAM@UCE.GOV. I'M NOT SURE HOW MANY THEY GET TO STOP THEIR SPAM, SCAM EMAILS, BUT IT'S WORTH A TRY.
Patricia Douglas @ Dec 3rd 2008 1:51PM
Thank you for your imput on spam. I don't get into any emails that i don't know. I got injured once on email so I don't trust anyone anymore especially marketing. they are pushly all the time.
sincerely yours,
ppatdou71671@aol.com
&
ladtyvic50@yahoo.com
ps. I having problems with boxbe because they pick up trash and i would get 1000 junk mail.
charlesharris53 @ Oct 9th 2008 10:31PM
all you have to do is not open it and right click on the e-mail address and hit block. i have stopped all kinds of bs coming thru
disgusted @ Oct 9th 2008 11:08PM
It's good to get a warning, but these scams are always there. Just a matter of more of them to deal with. A little common sense, and a little more often to use it.
Watchdog @ Oct 10th 2008 12:19AM
For a few years running now, this is the #1 complaint to the FTC. The problem is that many of these hackers and phishers are outside the jurisdiction of the United States so nothing can really be done about them. Be vigilant, be skeptical. Beware of any emails that end with a country code - i.e. .cn, .ru, .ro, etc., instead of a .com as most are bogus.
http://www.recordseal.com
http//www.gotaccident.com
http://www.gotspeedingticket.com
Peace @ Oct 10th 2008 12:51AM
Just today I deleted a one that claimed to be an ecard.
Problem was the link was to an exec. There is absolutely no legitimate reason for a card to use the .exe extention.