Email Hoax or Email Scam are you at risk?

Email Hoax, Email Scams and Phishing are all in the same category of a growing risks on the Internet. They only have one objective, to “steal your identity”.

The government has said that, ”bogus emails that try to trick the customer into giving out personal information are on the rise and quite troubling”.

The FBI’s Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC0 has seen a steady increase in complains that involve some form of unsolicited e-mail directing consumers to a phony “customer service” site

Spoofing like Phishing and email hoax's are fraudulent attempts to make computer users believe they are receiving emails from a trusted source and or a secure website. Email spoofing tries to look legitimate as having come from a legitimate source. The ploy is to have you open and click the link and hook you into responding to their solicitation and or offer.

IP Spoofing – is a technique used to gain access to computers where the hacker sends a message to a computer with an IP address that is coming from a trusted source. These can be hard to detect.

Link Alteration – this is where the sender has altered the return address of the web page sent to the user / consumer to that any response goes back to the hacker’s site. You can identity this when you take you cursor and place it over the email address of the send to see what the actual address is versus what it is says it is. Last night I received an email from Yahoo mail asking me to respond with my login information, when I checked the sender it was from a person and not the company.

Tips on how to protect yourself from an email hoax or email scam

• Avoid unsolicited email that asks you, either directly or through a website, for personal information such has login verification, password validation, tag as spam and or delete.

• If a website address for a company is unfamiliar, it may not be real, check it out with the company. Go to the company’s home page first.

• If you need to update online information, make sure your on a secure website for the company that uses a secure URL; “ https://”

• If you have any doubts about an email or website, contact the company directly. Make a copy of the websites url address and sent it to the company and ask if its legitimate.

• If you have been victimized, you need to contact and report the complaint with the local police and or the FBI.