Phish Phry

   

 

Here is a collection of four scams and gotchas for your to be aware of.

 

 

 

Scam Email

One sure clue of a scam email is to see when it gives you the finger.

Let's say you get an email from what looks like Gevalia Coffee with what looks like one of their typical offers for a free coffeemaker if you purchase some coffee.  Let's say you are tempted to click on the button in the email that says "Click Here to Order Now"

Before you click, watch the cursor carefully!

In a real email, the cursor will still be the same normal arrow until you actually move it over the button, when it will become a pointing finger.  This pointing finger indicates that the area where the cursor is located is a clickable link.

In the fake email, the cursor will be the pointing finger over the entire area of the advertisement in the email!  That means that the entire email is a clickable link and is usually an indicator that the email is a link to somewhere you don't want to go:  an adware or spyware site, a phishing site, a porn site, or a site collecting your email address in order to add it to a SPAM list.  In any event, DON'T CLICK ON IT!

If you are looking at your email in a web browser, make sure that status bar at the bottom of the screen is activated (View / Status bar).  Hover your cursor over the ad and you will see the web address that you will be taken to if you click the link.  In the case of the fake Gevalia ad I checked while writing this article, the address is ht~p://ab~y~nce.ni~htly~rmo~red.i~fo/~~~~~/?s~e~en@co~cast.n~t, which you can see includes my email address (I "doctored" the web address so it wouldn't get clicked on by mistake).

That means that if I clicked anywhere on the ad (not only the "order" button, but anywhere) it would have taken me to that site and obtained my email address, telling them that this is a live email address and encouraging them to send more SPAM.

If you are not using a browser for your email, but using an email program like Outlook or Outlook Express, there is no Status bar to look at where a click will take you.  You can right-click on the message and choose View Source, but that may just have a lot of information that confuses you.  The safest thing is to watch the cursor to see when it turns into a pointing finger.  It it gives you the finger at the wrong time, simply delete the message without clicking on it anywhere.

PS.  NEVER EVER click the Opt-Out link in any questionable email.  It will just add you name to the list of live email links and you will get more and more SPAM.  Only opt out if you are sure the email is from a known reputable company.

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BBB Safe, Don't get Scammed!

I got an email from my bank the other day (yes, it was a real email and not a phishing scheme) mentioning that the Better Business Bureau of Maryland maintains a listing of scams so that consumers can be aware of what to beware of.  They will also send out a monthly newsletter about alerts, scams, and other consumer issues.

You can sign up now for the FREE email subscription for BBB Consumer Club!  You'll receive timely alerts on the latest consumer scams and fraudulent offers, tips to save you time and money, and expert advice to help you to avoid becoming a victim of identity theft.

To enroll for this FREE service, send an email to consumerclub@bbbmd.org with "Sign Up for Consumer Club" in the subject line.  (If you have subscribed but no longer wish to receive these email alerts, put "Remove Me" in the subject line.)

An archive of previous issues can be found by clicking here.

http://www.greatermd.bbb.org/WWWRoot/SitePage.aspx?site=41&id=1e6fcf89-ccd0-4f9b-8555-ed9ddebaf48f

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Guilty or Not?

Speaking of scams, I want to remind you of the Jury Duty scam that was identified and reported by the FBI in 2005.  It is still going strong, which means that people still fall for it.  Here is the scoop.

The Jury Duty Scam is not new and has been the focus of several FBI warning notices. The scam is a telephone call from a "jury coordinator" and it goes like this:

The caller claims to be a jury coordinator. If you protest that you never received a summons for jury duty, the scammer asks you for your Social Security number and date of birth so he or she can verify the information and cancel the arrest warrant.

This scam is particularly insidious because they use intimidation over the phone to try to bully people into giving information by pretending they're with the court system. If you give out any of this information, your identity will be stolen.

Jury Duty coordination, in general, is received in the form of a "hard copy," delivered by the post office with instructions for an automated call-in system using non-attributable information to determine your required schedule.

The FBI and the federal court system have issued nationwide alerts on their web site

http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel05/092805.htm

So, don't feel guilty and divulge your personal information.

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Stuck in the Amazon jungle?

After all the talk about scams, you wouldn't expect a reputable company like Amazon to be mentioned here.  Well, it is mentioned.

Amazon is not a scammer, but like a lot of online companies, they want to make it extremely easy for you to spend your money there.  They figure if you select an item and have to log into their website, it just might make you think before you click and not make the purchase.  So, they make it extremely difficult for you to log out.

There is no Log Out or Log Off link or button on their site.  Once logged in on a computer, you remain logged in until someone else logs in.  That is especially troubling if you share a computer or are checking on your order on a public computer.

A recent article in Ed Foster's Gripe Line discussed this problem and confirmed with Amazon that there is no way to simply log off.  However, there is a work around, and as the title of Ed's article suggests, you have to lie (albeit to an inanimate website) to make it happen.

So, here's how to log out of Amazon.com. 

1.  Click on your name before the question mark in the parentheses on the link at the top of the home page that says "Hello _______.  We have recommendations for you.  (Not _____?).

2.  On the next screen, leave the e-mail and password spaces blank and click the Your Amazon.com link near the top of the page.

This will successfully log you out of Amazon.com.  Next time you shop, you will have to log in again, but that shouldn't keep you from buying something you really want.