Thursday, June 7, 2012

How to avoid getting hacked


Our IT guy at work sent this to us.
I revised it to relate to you and such. But this is really helpful!

Have you ever wonder how someone got your password to your facebook, twitter, e-mail, etc.?

Here is one way that they would have gotten all the information from you.

Sometimes you get an e-mail that may look like this (especially if you use Verizon), but this is an example. You may have gotten other brand/company of e-mails.



This is a screenshot Phishing email that has made its way past email spam filter.  From time to time these get through.
If some do happen to get through here is an easy way to tell if it is phishing.

TIP: Hover over one of the web links to see where it goes (DO NOT CLICK). If it is going to any other than the company it should go to it is probably phishing.

                Q: What are they phishing for?
                A: your login information so they can take your money.

Make sure you took a good look at the image, click on it if you need to. It's hard to tell if it's even spam, doesn't is, and the hovering of the link really makes the difference! But most people don't hover to see where the link takes you...


This is what happens if you click on the link:

1. One click on the link and get taken to a website that looks just like Verizon’s but really it is the Phishers website.
2. You try to login but usually get a message saying the userid or password  is in-correct.
3. You then try all of the login ID’s and passwords that you may have ever used.
4. In the background the Phisher is collecting all these login ID’s and passwords along with what city your internet connection is coming from and stores it in a database.
5. Then over time they take that information and through a program try to login to Verizon, Gmail, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, dating sites, Ticket master, Amazon, Wal-Mart,  and any other global popular websites , especially social sites, as you to steal information about you to use later.
6. They also take those logins and try to login to national banks, investment firms and any other financial institutions hoping to transfer all of your money to them.
7. Then they take your logins and location information to attempt login to local banks and financial institutions, again hoping to gain access to your money.

Q: How do they have time to do all this?
A: They don’t. But they did have time to write a software program to do it all for them.

Remember with Phishing: If you are not sure where you are going, you are already lost.

Always hover over links! If you don't feel comfortable with it, then open a new window, and type in the link yourself and go through there.

Here is a website with tips on protecting yourself from the Phishers' trap!
http://www.focus.com/fyi/44-ways-protect-phishing/

1 comment:

  1. Great advise - such a pain when my social media is hacked!

    ReplyDelete

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