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Protect yourself from e-mail scams

By: Gregg Housh

A lot of us are already very familiar with the annoyance of spam: unsolicited e-mail ads. In recent years, unwanted e-mails have evolved in an attempt to avoid increasingly specialized filters and wary consumers. We have put together a list of red flags to help you quickly identify e-mails that may be harmful to your computer and your bank account.

Suspicious attachments

Attaching files to an email is a fast and easy way to share files with your friends and co-workers. The downside is that unscrupulous scammers can attach files like viruses and {trojan horses|spyware in the hopes that an unwary recipient might download the file and infect their computer. If you receive an email with an attachment that you were not expecting, be very careful about downloading the attachment or even opening the email.

Links that don't make sense

In an email that claims to be from Yahoo, a link to a specific page on Yahoo's site appears. So why does the text of the link not begin with "http://yahoo.com"? Because this is a scam. Many scam artists attempt to gain account information or even credit card numbers by posing as respectable web companies looking for information about your account. These emails typically have a link to a page where you can reset your password, confirm your credit card information, or log in to access some special new feature. To spot these bad links, you simply need to look at the url: the address of the page that is being linked to. All urls begin with "http://" or "htpps://" and from there differ from website to website. If the url is not visible in the link, you can hover the mouse over the link and the url will be displayed in the lower left corner of your web browser.

Notifications about accounts that you don't have

Scam emails that disguise themselves as being from major websites are betting on their recipients actually having accounts with that website in the first place. If you get an email about your facebook account when you never even signed up with facebook, chances are pretty good that this is a phishing or virus email.

Password reset requests you didn't send

One of the most common email scams currently in circulation is the fake password reset. These emails claim that you recently requested a new password, and direct you to a webpage where you can enter your "old" account name and password. You may be able to spot these emails by the link urls or because you do not have the account that you would ly be resetting the password for in the first place. Even if you don't see anything suspicious with the link or the account information, never respond to a password reset email that you did not specifically ask for.

Sender addresses that don't add up

An official email from YouTube.com should be sent from an account that ends with @youtube.com. If h0ttmama99@mail.customersolutions.com" is sending you important updates about your YouTube account, it's a safe bet this is also a malicious email. If your email system hides sender information, you can change your settings to show full headers or usually click a link right in the email to show all of the sender information.

Money transfer requests

Typically from Nigeria, these emails claim that there is some enormous amount of cash sitting in an account somewhere that the sender wants moved to the US before something happens to it. It's not uncommon for these emails to be completely in upper case and poor English, although there are exceptions. These emails are scam attempts, trying to get your bank account information so that the sender can access your funds. No matter the pretense for the email, you shouldn't ever share bank account information with anyone you don't know. Recent versions of these emails claim to be from "a member of your church."

Suspect emails from contacts

The most dangerous and difficult to spot malicious emails are the ones sent by your friends and other contacts. Typically if you get a suspicious email from a friend or co-worker, it is either because their PC has been infected by a virus or because their email account has been compromised. If you find an email from one of your contacts that has strange characters in the subject, has attachments that you weren't not expecting, links to a file sharing site, or otherwise looks unlike the correspondence you're used to from that person, take the time to check with them before clicking on any links or downloading any attachments.

Emails from yourself

These kinds of emails can be unsettling when you find them. If you find an email from your own account sitting in your inbox that you know you didn't send (and you have not granted anyone else access to your account) immediately change your password and security question for your account. After that, look at your "sent mail" folder to see if any other emails went out that you were unaware of. Let everyone who received one of these suspicious emails know that you did not send the emails, that they should not open them or click any links or attachments and that you suspect your account was compromised. You can also let your email provider know about your concerns. If this problem comes back, your system may be infected and need virus cleanup service performed.

As users and spam filters become more aware of these malicious emails, scammers will develop new ploys to get at your computer, bank account, and other information. The best weapon against these attacks is a healthy dose of skepticism, though even vigilant users can fall victim to scams and viruses. If you believe you may have a compromised email account or infected computer, or if you just want to learn more about how to avoid these problems, give our office a call at 1-800-GEEK-HELP (433-5435).

Article Source: http://www.articlekingpro.com

Gregg Housh holds the position of Technician Manager at Geek Choice. At Geek Choice we fix computer problems such as: Slow computer, Virus Removal, Spyware Removal, Computer startup problems, Printer not printing, Not connecting to the Internet, Scanner not working, or the "blue screen of death".

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