Beware of Email Scams that appear to be from your Email provider

This morning, my wife got an email that looked legitimate enough and looked like it was from our Email Provider. This is the first time we had gotten one of these types pretending to be from our ISP. Usually, we get a phishing email from something that is pretending to be from a financial website. Since we are both “up” on this sort of thing, we immediately suspected it to be bogus and I called our provider to verify the email. Sure enough, the email was indeed bogus. Our provider never sent the email.

One really big point to keep in mind: Legitimate organizations will NEVER send an email to you asking for personal and sensitive information. If you suspect a bogus email, contact the organization that it was supposedly sent from to verify.

Here is an example of the Fraudulent email we got this morning, (the email provider name was removed):
————————–Example of Fraudulent Email—————————
From: “SUPPORT@YOUREMAILPROVIDER.NET”
Date: 2008/08/27 Wed AM 07:16:53 CDT
Subject: WebNews Email Account Update

THE “YOUREMAILPROVIDER” MAIL SERVICE WEBSITE WISH TO INFORM YOU THAT WE
HAVE SOME PROBLEMS ABOUT EACH CUSTOMER ACCOUNT EMAIL. DUE TO ERROR CODE
334409. WE DISCOVERD THAT IN FEW DAYS FROM NOW EACH CUSTOMER WILL NOT BE
ABLE TO ACCESS HIS OR HER EMAIL ACCOUNT.

IN THAT REGARD,YOU ARE REQUIRED TO SEND YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS AND PASSWORD
FOR A NEW ACCOUNT UPDATE.

YOU ARE ADVISED TO IMMEDIATELY SEND US THE REQUIRED INFORMATION SO AS TO
ENABLE US IMMEDIATELY UPDATE YOUR ACCOUNT.YOU ARE TO SEND US THIS
INFORMATION VIA EMAIL TO
account_update@sify.com

Note:You have to understand that the reason why we are not sending this
message from our own private account.This is due to some technical problem
we are having right now.
Thanks for your understanding.

BELOW THE INFORMATION RQRUIRED FOR ACCOUT UPDATE

1)Full Email Address:
2)password:
3)country:
4)date of birth:
5)First name/Last name:

YOUREMAILPROVIDER Privacy Statement | Copyright 2008 YOUREMAILPROVIDER . All Rights Reserved.

—————————————End of Example—————————–
NOTE: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO ANSWER THESE TYPES OF EMAILS!

Click this link for more information: Fraud and Scam Alerts – Phishing

See also: More on Phishing

Starting a Home Based Business

It doesn’t matter if you fall into this category or not, even those and especially those who start a home based business, should be just as careful if not more careful about security and Identity theft. I decided to write an article on this subject since I fall into this category. In addition to blogging, I am an Independent Herbalife Distributor and I work from home. So, I as well as you need to always be concerned about your Internet Security and Identity Theft. WE all need to be concerned about Phishing, Identity Theft, malicious attacks and the list goes on.

As a Home Based Business owner, I too have to be concerned with these issues as well as doing my own backups, keeping records and so fourth. I do have the luxury of having 2 PC’s on a network so if one goes down, I can still be in business, but, there would be some impact. My PC is the main one and am slowly kind of merging both in ways that I can have access to all my files.

If you decide that starting a home based business is for you, then you need to be very selective of the type of business you choose. They are not all created equal and some can be scams. While the purpose of this post is not to talk you into anything, if you would be interested in a home based business, you may call me at 877-234-2784 or email me at timabeck@verizon.net for more information.

Home Based Business are really not any different then those with an address other than where you live. Same business realities, it’s just you live there. Except of course, other employees.

Why is security so important for the Home PC User?

Home PC Users need to be concerned about security regardless of what their usage is. Whether it be for games, chatting, personal finance, or even starting a home based business. Home users can range from kids, teens, young and older adults and so fourth. Adults need to watch out for their kids and teens. Security has become so much more important since the addition of the Internet. Like Earth, the Internet is also a planet in which the same rules apply.

When kids play online with other kids, you have to assume that those they are playing with are themselves kids and not someone out there up to no good. Parents should set limits for their kids using the Internet. These limits can range from time spent, to purpose and with whom they are playing with. A good software to protect your PC and kids is K9 Web Protection. You can find this on http://www.download.com

Other harsh realities include Identity Theft, Malware, Viruses Hackers, the list goes on. Companies need to be concerned about the Home PC User as well. In fact, some have started to be concerned for the Home PC User and started offering Free versions of the Anti Virus, and Spyware products. This is an important and significant step. If Home Users can’t tackle security issues, then, this can have a bad impact on companies. Each connection to the Internet no matter what the origin is, is a potential victim.

Planet: Internet

Good, bad, ugly, unseen, are some examples of what awaits us on the Internet. I’ve been writing about spam, phishing and security issues lately, and it seems that this is a never ending subject. Everyone from a new user to someone at the top of the corporate world needs to be concerned about this subject. The Internet is like a planet, in that, you can find just about anything on it like you can anywhere on Earth. Also, from within the Internet, you can find viruses, and other malicious and non-malicious things just waiting to get you. On the other hand, there is a vast amount of good and reliable resources available on the Internet. Of course, you have your online stores such as Amazon, Barns and Noble, Ebay and so fourth. Now, being just a user of the Internet like many others, I have no idea if there is something patrolling the Internet looking for these evil items of interest? Perhaps something like and Internet patrolling software could be created, which I will call “I-Cop” could be created to cut down on these items. Now, perhaps, something like this already exists? I don’t know, but, wouldn’t it be neat if something could be out there dealing with this stuff, so we would not have to? I am not sure how something like that could be implemented. After all, we have police on Earth, why not something on patrol watching the Internet? Forgive my rambling, I am just “posting my thoughts” as in thinking out loud so to speak.

More On Phishing

More On Phishing, yes, a moron is phishing – neat phrase eh? Phisher’s are trying just about anything to get you to bite. I recently received an email that was completely out of the style being used by Phisher’s lately. It was an email that suggested that I check my account since I recently added a new email address to my account. There was a line that said “click here”. Well, first of all, I did not add anyone’s email address to my account. Not only that, I have taken the attitude that I am trusting no emails from specific sites and reporting everything that comes my way. Sure enough, the email I got was a Phishing Fraudulent email.

What happened to the old days when you heard the word Phishing and fishing was all it was about? Here are some of my suggestions in defending yourself on Phishing:

1. NEVER trust any emails from any of the sites you do transactions online with.
2. Contact the website directly, thus bypassing the email all together. Report the email right away to the site to inquire if it is legitimate or not.
3. When reporting the email, ask for a response back from the site.
4. You may get multiple attempts by Phishers, and it may seem real. Don’t fall for it, report it!
5. If you really do have an issue with any given website, you will find it out when reporting the email you receive.
6. DON’T TRUST ANY EMAIL YOU GET – REPORT IT – REPORT IT – REPORT IT

See also this post:

What you should know about Phishing

SPAM and Phishing in todays Internet

First, in the case of Phishing, you are sent an email that looks very authentic and if you are not careful, you could get caught and end up allowing sensitive information pass right to the Phisher and then you are caught hook line and sinker. With SPAM, you are sent lots of emails or other forms of electronic messages which could bog down your system. They are both in the form of electronic messages and/or email. One can bog down your system and the other can bog down your pocket book or wallet if you are not careful. I’m currently writing a 3 part article on SPAM and with this I am going over the effects of what spam can do and how to deal with it. The first two parts are posted already. There are also some posts on Phishing. Unfortunately this SPAM doesn’t spoil and Phishers have plenty of bait to use. I’ve been seeing a lot of spam and have recently received some emails that were obvious Phishing attempts. I decided that it would be prudent to write about these issues to be able to help anyone who needs this information.

I have multiple blogs and some receive lots of spam every day. Some of the spam is close to being useful while others are not. About 99 percent of the spam received on a daily basis ends up being deleted. I’ve noticed a steady increase of spam since launching my blogs early this year. Large volumes of spam can have a bad effect on a server.

With Phishing, and while volumes of these types of email is not the issue, responding to them is. I’ve received around 3 emails this past week and they were all fraudulent emails that appeared to be from very legitimate web sites. One of the web sites, I don’t even have an account with, which made it a dead give away. I contacted both web sites and one responded right away informing me that the email was fraudulent.

Both spam and fraudulent emails from Phisher’s are security hazards and need to be treated seriously. Stay tuned for my 3rd part on SPAM – It’s effects and what to do.

Also, you can refer to the following posts:

1. SPAM – It’s effects and what to do – Part #1
2. SPAM – It’s effects and What to do – Part #2
3. What you should know about Phishing

What you should know about Phishing

After a very recent phishing attempt (unsuccessful) on me, I decided to write about this nasty subject again. I recently received an email asking me to update my account information. The email provided a link for me to click on to log in and update my account information. I went to click on it and I immediately realized what this could be, so even thought I did click on the link, I did not do anything that provided any kind of useful information. So, I completely stopped what I was doing and closed it out and logged into the REAL website to verify my account status. It was ok. I immediately notified the website about the incident and they responded back that they never sent me an email and thanked me for notifying them.

You need to be really careful with the emails you get each day. Phisher’s are getting really resourceful in there ability to create emails that look authentic enough to fool you. We’ve become so automatic at times that we do things without even a thought. This is exactly what Phishers are counting on. Then, before you know it, the damage is done. This is a real serious issue, and anyone who uses the Internet, should be careful.

For more information, please see these links on Phishing:

1. Recognize Phishing scams and fraudulent emails

2. Let’s not go Phishing (a post in this blog)