It’s awful to think that there are so many
people out to try and catch us out online.
Cyber criminals spend their time trying to obtain personal information
about us to help them to access our data, potentially steal our identity, or
worse, our hard earned cash.
You can protect yourself by having a high
level of skepticism. If something sounds
too good to be true, your gut instinct is probably right. If an email arrives to tell you that you have
inherited a large amount of money or won a prize, be suspicious. What scammers want is for you to be duped
into clicking on the links (always web addresses in blue with a line
underneath), which will inevitably be contained in the email. Never click if you aren’t sure.
Recently I was almost fooled by a
couple. They are getting more and more
sophisticated. One was a fake parking
fine, telling me that I had parked illegally on private land at a certain date
and time. The fine was large, and the
email urged me to click to find out the full details. As you can imagine, this was quite a surprise
and I was shocked and annoyed and almost clicked, but something made me think
it might be fishy… I consulted my diary to find out what I had been doing on
the date specified and realized it couldn’t be true. Then once calmer, I checked the address the
email had been sent from and the supposed company collecting the money. Both were made up of course.
It is important to remain calm in stressful
situations involving your computer.
Never click anything unless you are sure.
This last week I have had several fake
emails from Amazon, just like this one.
They are designed to throw you into a
panic. Even seasoned users of the
Internet could be fooled by this one as it looks so real.
Dear
Customer,
Your ID info@mrspc.co.uk
was used to purchase Kärcher K2 Full Control Home Pressure Washer (
£87.99 )
From Amazon Store on a device that had not previously been associated
with you.
If you initiated this purchase, you can disregard this email.
In
case you did not initiate this purchase, please visit our Help Page for full
refund:
http://invoice88account.amaz-secure.id532usr.30supportapp.fr/inv051acc/index.php?email=byinfo@mrspc.co.uk
To cancel the
transaction and to confirm that you are the owner of the account.
The sender was supposedly Amazon.co.uk, or
so it appeared. In fact, by clicking on
the address to check, I found this address hidden acldz8362@shaw.ca I then knew it was a scam. Do always check the return address of any
email you get that you are unsure about or that causes alarm.
If you receive an email from a friend, and
they are sending you a link, but you weren’t expecting to hear from them, and
you feel it’s a little odd, they have probably had their email address
hijacked. Do let them know. It’s easier to give a friend a call on the
phone to check if they really did send the email, than click and risk an
infection on your computer.
Your bank will never email you - remember that if nothing else.
Stay safe online! Happy Computing.
