As the Holidays approach, thieve and hackers are out in full force. Beware of Holiday phishing scams. Just today, Amazon announced that thieves are sending emails to people updating them on the “status” of their order. The email looks authentic, and you would think it really did come from Amazon. The idea of course, is to get you to think “I didn’t order anything”. It then directs you to a link, where you think you are logging into Amazon, and it ends up taking you to another phishing site and attempts to collect personal information, even credit card info.

Phishing is nothing new. It has been around for years. Wells Fargo, Citibank, and other financial institutions have been dealing with this for many years. Pay Pal is another one that has had to deal with phishers. Do you remember when Pay Pal sent out numerous notifications that they would never ask for your password? As a computer user, you will need to be aware and vigilant to protect your private information. Here are some tips.

TIPS

  1.  If it looks suspicious, it is.
  2. Never click on a link that asks you for your password, or to log in. Go directly to the business website to log in, or call them.
  3. Just for fun, click, on reply, and look at the reply address. You will notice that it may have credentials from another country, or common words strung together to make it look real. For example, Accounts@alerts.wellsfargo.com. The word “alerts” is casually added into the Wells Fargo return address.

Playing detective while on your computer is never really fun. Who wants to look over their shoulder? Unfortunately, that’s the digital world we live in. Hackers and thieves are always out to get your personal information. Don’t give it to them!

 

Tier3MD is a medical IT support group, servicing medical practices.