Phishing

More people are tackling their shopping lists with a single swipe on their smartphones and mobile devices this year, but they aren’t taking the necessary steps to prevent themselves from viruses, malware and identity theft.

Today in a post on the Official Google (NCSA Board member Company) Blog titled Ensuring Your Information is Safe Online Eric Grosse, Engineering Director, Google Security Team announced that Google had:
“Through the strength of our cloud-based security and abuse detection systems, we recently uncovered a campaign to collect user passwords, likely through phishing. This campaign, which appears to originate from Jinan, China, affected what seem to be the personal Gmail accounts of hundreds of users

The recent devastating events in Japan have sparked generosity in millions of people. However, as McAfee, an NCSA board company, recently reported, it has additionally launched a few donation scam sites. If you’re looking to contribute to a relief effort, remember to STOP. THINK. CONNECT. and ensure that it is legitimate fund. Do not click on links or respond to disaster aid emails that ask for personal and/or financial information. In addition, avoid clicking tiny URLs that claim to link to charitable relief fund sites.

Selling identity theft protection has become a big business. Consumers are constantly being offered different forms of identity theft protection online or through their banks or credit cards.  However, many of the most effective online identity theft prevention measures are free or cheap and do not require you to sign up for any special service. Here are five of the most effective.

One of the knock-on effects of the continued bad economy has been a surge in the number of online work-at-home scams reported on SiteJabber. In response to this, we have developed a few resources to help consumers avoid getting scammed. 

Red Flags for Work-At-Home Scams 

Unfortunately, there are always people out there ready to take advantage of people during times of crisis.

As we have seen during the financial crisis and recent natural disasters, scam artists, phishers, and other cyber criminals use the day’s headlines to lure people to sites that deposit viruses^G and malware (malicious software such as spyware^G) or try to get you to reveal personal information or buy something you don’t need or can get somewhere else for free.

We all know the significance of April 15th. It's the date taxes are due. Many of wait till the last moment to file, and probably even more of us spend our refund (if we get one) before the check arrives.

Tax time is also a good time to be aware of potential scams related to the IRS. There have been many phishing and other IRS scams over the years.

Phishing is still a thriving criminal enterprise. The release of the 2008 RSA Online Fraud report  confirms the ongoing problem of phishing in cyber space (disclosure: EMC is a NCSA Board member and RSA is an EMC company). According to the report the volume of phishing attacks during 2008 grew 66% over those attacks detected throughout 2007.