southcityusa is a yahoo group created by resident Peggy Deras
Peggy Deras, South City resident and founder/moderator of southcityusa, a Yahoo group created to bring major news relating to South San Francisco to residents, recently shared this information with her group. Peggy’s husband George found his email and password were compromised on Playstation.com. His identity protection service, AllClearID, provided them with this information. Thank you to Peggy for her continued work in keeping South City hooked up.
If you are interested in signing up for the daily journals produced by Peggy click here and sign up (must have Yahoo account)
Scam Alert: Phishing Emails & Personalized Spam
February 18, 2013
Jackie here with AllClear ID. We’ve all learned to be cautious of
those emails from a far off location promising millions in exchange
for banking information but recently, phishing emails have taken on a
new, much more complex face. In fact, they can look just like they
were sent to you from a family member or a friend. Often, these
emails include a link that will send you to a malicious site that
will download malware to your computer.
How Do These Scams Work?
Social media is often a vital part of these scams. Scammers will
access your personal data using social media sites like Facebook,
Google+, Linked In and Twitter and will obtain information about you
and your friends. Some will create fake accounts using your friend’s
names to send out the phishing emails, while others will send fake
friend requests hoping to gain access to your personal information
and the personal information of your friends.
One of the best ways to protect yourself from this scam is to check
your privacy settings on all your social media accounts. Some id
thieves access information from accounts with lax privacy settings,
so keeping your information private is very important. Another thing
you can do is keep an eye open for friend requests that seem
suspicious. Did you receive a second friend request from someone
already on your list? Are you the only friend appearing on a newly
created profile? Fake profiles often have warning signs such as these
you can spot. Finally, don’t follow links in emails from friends
unless you are sure they sent them. If an email seems suspicious,
call the friend and double check before you click the link.
It is also wise to use caution when accessing Facebook or other
social media sites from public Wi-Fi. You can get a one-time password
for your account by texting ‘otp’ to 32665 from the mobile number
associated with your account. This will keep your password from
falling into the wrong hands when using a public connection.
Learn more about this scam from the Better Business Bureau.
New Wave of Phishing Scams Uses Facebook Info for Personalized Spam
1/25/2013
Check your privacy settings. Scammers are tapping into the personal
data available through Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn to pose as your
friends in fraudulent emails. Watch out for these personalized scam
messages and take steps to prevent them.
How the Scam Works:
You receive an email that appears to be sent by a friend or family
member. The message addresses you by name, but the content is
strange. Usually, it’s just a link to a website. If you click on it,
you could end up downloading malware to your computer.
What’s going on here? The scammers are exploiting the fact that
you’re more likely to click on a link if it was sent by a friend.
Scammers find your information through Facebook or other social media
accounts. Some set up fake accounts and send out friend requests.
When you accept the request, they can view your friends and personal
and contact information. Other scammers rely on social media users
http://www.facebook.com/help/3
privacy settings, so basic information, such as your name, email
address and friends’ names, is publicly available.
How to Protect Your Facebook Account from Spammers?
* Review your security settings.
http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=
out Facebook’s information on setting your privacy settings to be
sure you aren’t sharing personal information with strangers.
http://www.facebook.com/help/3
information on what can be found publicly in search engines.
* Don’t accept Facebook friend requests from unknown people.
* Report scam profiles and other suspicious activity to Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/help/1
following these instructions.
* Consider enabling login notifications, so you will know when
someone uses a new device to access your account.
* When accessing Facebook from public wi-fi in places like hotels
and airports, text “otp” to 32665 to receive a one-time password to
your account.
What to do if You Receive a Suspicious Email:
* Don’t click on strange links, even if they’re from friends.
Notify the person who sent you the email if you see something suspicious.
* Check the “header” field. Even though a friend’s name is in the
“from” field, spam email won’t be from their email address.
* If you click the link, be sure to run a virus scan on your computer.
For More Information
Visit http://www.facebook.com/help/3
privacy section for more information about protecting your account.
To find out more about scams, check out the new
http://www.bbb.org/
Scam Stopper.
http://www.bbb.org/scam-stoppe