Protect Yourself From Email Scams

By Author: Gregg Housh
Total Articles: 18
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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 spot e-mails that may be harmful to your PC and your wallet.

Suspicious attachments

Attaching files to an email is a fast and simple way to share files with your contacts. 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. Whenever you receive an email with an attachment that you were not expecting, be 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 it's a scam. Many hackers attempt to gain account information or even credit card numbers by pretending to be respectable web companies ...
... asking for information about your account. These emails will typically contain 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 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 vary from website to website. If the url is not visible in the link, you can hover your mouse over the link and the url will be displayed in the lower left corner of your web browser.

Emails about accounts that you don't have

Malicious emails that disguise themselves as emails 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, odds are very good that this is a phishing or virus email.

Password reset requests you didn't send

One of the most common phishing emails currently 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 worrying 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 email from YouTube.com should be sent from an account that ends with @youtube.com. If "vanessa1997@aol.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 obscene amount of money sitting in an account somewhere that the sender wants transfered to the United States before something terrible happens to it. It's not unusual for these emails to be entirely in caps lock and poor English, although there are exceptions. These emails are scam attempts, attempting 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."

Strange emails from contacts

The most dangerous and hard 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 family member, it's either because their system has been infected by a virus or because their 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 different from the emails you're used to from that person, take the time to contact them before clicking on any links or downloading any attachments.

Emails from yourself

These kinds of emails can be disturbing 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, check out 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 recurs, 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 cautious users can fall victim to scams and viruses. If you believe you may have a compromised email account or infected system, or if you just want to learn more about how to prevent these problems, give our office a call at 1-800-GEEK-HELP (433-5435).
Gregg Housh is 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".