spam

This is the subject line of an email I received this morning purporting to come from “NetworkSolutions Support Team”. First of all, I don’t have any domain names registered with Network Solutions (notice that there is supposed to be a space between Network and Solutions); second, bad grammar (your domain ARE expired) is a tip-off to a phishing scam. I checked the Network Solutions support website, and sure enough, there’s a phishing scam going around targeting their customers. You can see what they have to say here. This just serves as a reminder that you should always be wary of unsolicited email, even if it looks like it comes from a legitmate company.

As anyone watching the news lately knows, there are a lot of buyouts and bailouts going on. With all the mergers and financial worries going on, spammers have found a virtual paradise to play in. For the past few weeks, the amount of financial institution spam has skyrocketed. Just yesterday I received about 30 emails from supposed banks asking me to update my online information because of website redesigns or mergers. As always, you should be aware that your bank will never ask for any personal information via email. And you should never give out your social security number, credit card numbers, account numbers, etc through email to a bank or anyone else. If you receive an email that looks legitimate, don’t click on the links in the email, but rather type the bank’s website into Internet Explorer yourself to make sure you are at the correct website. The last thing anyone would want to deal with in this financial climate is having their identity stolen.

It seems that the spam never ends these days. In a previous post, I wrote about a new wave that looked like it came from CNN, Microsoft, and later, MSNBC. That seems to have slowed down as everyone caught on that it was a hoax, but the general sea of spam has kept up at a steady pace. I just wanted to remind everyone about the basics of good email safety: never open a message from someone you don’t know; never click on a link in an email (if you have to go to the link, such as a bank, open your browser and type in the address); don’t send your personal information via email; no reputable company will EVER ask you for either your personal information or your account information via email, so don’t send it. Read the rest of this entry »

A new round of spam has been showing up in inboxes the past 2 weeks. The first round purports to come from CNN, with the subjects “Daily Top Ten” or “My Custom Alerts”; the other looks like it is from admin@microsoft.com and has the subject “Internet Explorer 7″. The gotcha in the CNN spam is a link to supposed CNN videos that require you to download and install “Flash Player”; of course the download is actually malware and will infect your computer. As always, never open any unsolicited email, even if it seems to come from a legimate source.