Phishing Scams

Phishing is a form of Identity Theft – typically an e-mail is sent to you that looks like it comes from a legitimate company (E-Bay has been a typical target) telling you that you must click on this link to update your records and verify your username and password. The site it takes you to is really a place to collect that information from you and steal your identity, money, records and whatever they can. Congress is trying to work on laws to help, but based on the ineffective Can Spam act, it is doubtful to help.

Knowledge is the most effective preventive mechanism today – Legitimate companies do not ask for this type of information by e-mail. Don’t be a victim.

Never click on a link to update your records or to provide login information sent to you in an email.

Rather, if you think it may be a legitimate request, login to the official site for that company (one that you are familiar with) to update your records.

Spamming

Spamming is the method of posting irrelevant or inappropriate messages to one or more Usenet newsgroups, mailing lists, or other messaging system in a deliberate or accidental violation of netiquette or to indiscriminately send large amounts of unsolicited e-mail meant to promote a product or service. Spam in this sense is sort of like the electronic equivalent of junk mail sent to “Occupant”. Most of us don’t want it, and don’t want to deal with it. But dealing with it is the only way to get rid of it.

Spam should be deleted right away, Never reply!

One common trick spammers use is to provide instructions for “unsubscribing” from a list.  When a user unsubscribes, this tells the spammer that the address is a live address. Now the address can sold for a premium to direct marketers. This increases the amount of “junk” mail you will be receiving.

There are two ways to delete spam, both of which are completely necessary:

• Automatically, using filters or rules.
• Manually, for messages the filters or rules cannot remove.