Hello again readers,

I apologize for not having anything posted sooner.  For those who are going to be shopping this holiday season, watch out for things that look too good to be true.  TrendMicro just released their top ten things to watch out for this holiday season. The full article can be found here but here’s a shortened version of it as well as some other details.

10. Bargain Hunter Scams – If the price seems way too low, check to see if the store is an authorized retailer, they may not be selling you the real product.

9. Fake Charity Sites – From hurricanes to terrorist sieges, everyone is wanting money for something.  Ensure charities you are donating to are authorized non profit charities, and not some random website. (Some site still look good so be careful as explained later in this article, I still prefer to give cash or pay in person)

8. Fake Greeting Cards – Ensure the messages from e-cards look real and don’t contain gibberish, sometimes they may come a friend or relative but contain malicious code that could be harmful to your computer.

7. Malicious Advertisements – Those annoying pop ups may start looking appealing when holiday shopping, but careful not be lured to sites that look real but are actually not.

6. Malicious Search Results – When typing something like “holiday shopping” into a search engine, one might come up with some website that can be harmful to your system.  Use something like McAfee Site Advisor to give you a better idea as to what is good and what isn’t (though results are not always 100% accurate, it’s still better than nothing).

5. Compromised High Traffic Websites – Attackers during the holiday season try to focus their attacks on sites that shoppers go to and insert malicious code that can download things to your system.  Keep your Antivirus program up to date!

4. Mining Personal Data – Bogus Gift Card Promos – Surveys that say they are going to give some awesome prizes can look legitimate but can get you to put in your credit card numbers saying they’ll give you money when they’re actually doing the opposite.

3. e-Commerce Phishing – eBay is the most phished website as it is was listed the most visited in 2007.  Amazon is also among the top.

2. Bogus Courier Receipts Delivering Trojan Viruses – Emails that say you have an undelivered package and requesting money when you don’t recall buying anything is a good sign showing that it’s a fake.  Use your best judgment!

1. Shopping Invoices for Ghost Transactions – Ensure e-mails saying you have a receipt in the attachment to a purchase you made are from the site you purchased it from.  Don’t open the attachment, most retailers as far as I know make the receipts available once you log in securely to their websites.  They don’t send them in attachments.

Well now you know the top ten.  Some common e-mails people mistake for being legitimate look something like this. Then they ask for personal information like this.

Some of the common e-mails are spoofed from McDonalds, Walmart, and, a personal favourite, some random old lady that passed away left you her fortune and you have to pay money to get it. What an idea!

Well I hope after reading this you will practice safe shopping, remember a good antivirus program helps, but nothing beats your common sense!

Phishing danger, internet, Phishing, scam, shopping

I just received a phone call from a random company that supposedly does soliciting on behalf of RBC.  The girl on the phone horribly pronounced my name (wasn’t even close!) when asking for me.  I just agreed that it was me and let her spill her sales chip.  After saying she was going to sign me up for two years at $69 for myself and my family she said so you live at such and such address.  It was at that point I had enough, I said wow you did no verification of who I am at all and you just gave away my address.  Who’s to say that I wasn’t some stalker or scammer that claimed to be me just to see what the caller wanted?
Anyways, I then talked to a supervisor and he took me off the solicitation list.  I asked him if he was aware of RBC’s security policies and what his company’s security policies are.  He had no idea what was going on, just took me off the list and hung up.

I then called RBC Visa security department to let them know what was going on.  They were more than helpful in going through my recent transactions to make sure nothing was going on.  She immediately cancelled my card and issued me a new one.  I also asked her to ensure others are aware of what’s going on and contact the appropriate people.  She agreed but I doubt much is going to get done on their part, but at least subscribers to the blog will have a better idea of what not to do.
So to recap companies that call you to ask you to pay for a service that the bank already provides (one call to cancel your debit and credit cards) for free is usually some sort of scam.  It’s a good idea to get them to take you off their solicitation lists, contact your bank to issue you new cards, as well as sign up for the national do not call list.

Hope this was helpful!

Phishing