Oct 31 2008
Everyone have a fun and safe Halloween.
Hopefully everyone is outside having fun and not having to work and answer email.
With all the distractions of co-workers and kids wearing funny clothes, make sure you keep your eyes open on any emails you click on.
The best way to not get caught and hurt by spam and/or phishing: keep your eyes open and avoid anything that strikes you as funny.
Oct 28 2008
Warning: This is a little bit of a rant, sorry.
It is great fun to watch the spam subject lines that people talk about on twitter. Just do a search on Twitter search for “spam subjects” (or click here).
Then there is going through my hotmail account and laughing at the stuff that makes it through their filter.
Then there is the spam I get on my facebook account, people forwarding those scammy alerts to their entire address book.
Also those people on facebook who don’t seem to understand that because I said once I couldn’t make their event, doesn’t mean that if you send me the invite again I will suddenly change my mind.
Also those new twitter followers who just post one tweet after another about their product, all with links back to their site.
Don’t even get my started on MySpace.
Seems every new system that goes up, someone works out how to spam it. People, learn to participate in the community, not abuse it!
Oct 20 2008
Over the weekend I got forwarded an email from a friend about a “BIG VIRUS COMING” and tried to use another website to prove that the virus was real (http://www.snopes.com/ which is a Urban Legends Reference Site to validate things or not).
My friend did two things wrong when forwarding this email.
1) She forwarded it to almost her entire address book, and put all these email address in the “To” line. Which means I can see all of these people and their email address and these other people see it to. Anyone can now email all these people.
I don’t know who these people are and don’t know that I want all of them to have my email address, but the choice has been taken away from me (if just one of these people is a spammer, I have just been signed up for another piece).
If you are going to forward an email to your address book, put all the names in the “BCC” field. BCC stands for Blind Cabon Copy, which means everyone is blind to the address it is sent to. People will still get the email, but they won’t be able to see any of the email addresses.
2) My friend claims she read the Snopes page to verify this, but she obviously only scanned it, because she missed at the bottom where it says:
“Readers should take particular care not to confuse the real postcard/greeting card virus with a number of virus-related hoaxes that have been circulating for several years. A variety of messages forwarded by well-intended people to warn others about the Postcard virus contribute to this confusion by including within them links to our article about the “Virtual Card for You” hoax”.
If you are going to forward an alarming email (or any news for the matter) make sure you have 100% verified it is real, don’t scan and do half a job on this. Some people don’t take alarming news well and they get upset, especially if they don’t know what to do about it.
Oct 15 2008
Thought I would put up a few sample spam subject lines.
I hope this makes it easier for you to spot and delete the spam without opening it. There are some which are pretty obvious, but sometimes they try to put either a very confusing headline or something that sounds newsy.
Here you go:
Oct 08 2008
We have been seeing a lot of headline news being used in the subject line of Spam emails.
Seen stuff about OJ Simpsons guilty verdict, the economy of course and more.
Unless you have actually subscribed to news email, getting anything like this is spam and you should delete it without opening it.
Even if you have subscribed to news emails, make sure the sender (or the from) is the place you subscribed to before opening the email.
Deleting email without opening it is the best way to prevent your email address from getting sold to even more spammers. While there is no guarantee, it is a step in the right direction.
Oct 06 2008
It seems that whenever you buy something on the Internet this leads to more email spam in your mailbox.
However, a lot of legitimate companies are starting to recognize that selling your email address to someone or even spamming them themselves without your consent gets them in trouble.
However instead of being very overt and forthcoming about getting your consent they are being subtle and many people miss the opportunity to say no because it is so hidden.
Whenever you buy something on-line read the entirety of all the pages of the checkout process. Especially look for a little title checkbox that is you either have to check to not be on their mailing list or uncheck. Sometimes there is more than one:
If there are no checkboxes anywhere, look for a privacy policy link and read what it says there. If they “reserve” the right to send you emails or anything similar, you will be spammed and you will have to decide if it is worth it to buy the product from them.
Some places actually state in their privacy policy that they won’t spam you, and hopefully more and more places will do this.
If they don’t have a check boxes or a privacy policy, you will be spammed by them or they will be selling your email address. Again, a decision you will have to make if it is worth it to buy the product from them.
Oct 03 2008
There are three prominent email phishing scams going around that everyone should be on the lookout for:
All of these will try to get you to click through to a website which is in fact not really the company’s website.
There is always a problem and you need to act right away to fix it.
If you think there really might be a problem DON’T CLICK ON THE LINK, instead, independently go to the website and check it out yourself.
Oct 01 2008
2 cents from Eric Brownstone, Founder and CEO of Internet Defense Technology
I have noticed about a ten times increase in my Spam email over the last few weeks.
It’s amazing how much I now know about the horrible economy, the failing stock market… and how I am going to loose my house soon, and never be able to buy anything ever again.
Should I just end my life now?
Or do I take heed in the various Spam messages, and put all of my money into the new “XYZ Fund” so it will be safer than in the bank? Or get a new Interest only loan on my house from “Joe’s Good Bank” and save my home from foreclosure.
Really its CRAZY, who has this much time to craft emails that suck people in and take MORE money from them.
Maybe when this election is finished and we have a new President things will calm down, and I can finally get back to the Spam that I enjoy seeing, after all penis enlargement, and drugs that allow me to have sex again are so much more important.
