Phishing or Fishing, Don’t Get Hooked!

In the world of computers and email, there is this thing called phishing, in which you, the end-user, is suckered into clicking on fraudulent emails. In the past few weeks, I’ve noticed an increase in these fraudulent email messages coming in from old, well-established addresses. These emails are so well formatted and well-designed that you may be thinking, “Hey, I better open this up,” or better click the links. Don't.

The issue is these links, and sometimes the scripts attached, will send you into malware hell, which will take a computer surgeon to get you out of. It always makes me wonder why programmers spend all this time crafting ways of getting at your data. These people should be working on the next great application or applet, which one would think would provide more cash to them in the long run.

The simple truth is, it is easy to get your vital information and even easier to get your cash from credit cards than it is to sell you real software. These new breeds of attacks will direct you to destinations that look real, but are compromised with scripts to load in the background—small snippets of code that infect your PC and Mac computers.

So I have a way to help you around this, in a simple manner. You should look at each email coming in and simply call the end user who may have sent it in the first place. Now I’m not saying call every one, but if you get one from a credit card company saying this is an alert on your card, or an old long-lost school mate is trying to contact you, just think twice before clicking or replying. Think about it, the credit card companies have your phone numbers, and if a buddy is trying to get in touch with you, why didn’t he just call?

This brings back memories of “if it is too good to be true then it is,” of scams of old, when a long-lost friend has a million dollars to send you. Don’t be duped, is the short of this, people. Make sure you have a good antivirus and use common sense when using your computer. One other note: please tell your kids to be extra careful with Facebook and other sites, because they too will often lead to similar exploits. So stay safe when using your computers, and let phishing mean fishing and worms mean those wiggling things that you have all said “gross” to.

CAW (Cool Application of the Week):

Security is always on my mind, and email is always coming in, and in huge amounts, and most of it is junk. I have been using a little PEEK from the good people at Xintercept for years. This handy program allows me to look at email at the root level displaying the header, source and attachments before I even open it up completely. The interesting thing is, I can trace back junk mail and simply add these to my block sender listing. So stay safe and block away with a PEEK.