A warning for all internet and email users!

It’s almost Valentine’s Day once again but before opening up that  E-Valentine’s Card, you may want to think again.  It may not be coming from cupid but instead from someone ready to spread the so called Storm Worm virus.

The Storm Worm virus have used the various holidays in the previous year to send out millions of emails and electronic cards such as Valentine’s E-Cards.  It is a malicious software (malware) and it does infect computer machines and made it become a part of of the Storm Worm botnet.  A botnet is a network of compromised machines but under the control of a single user.  Botnets are known to be to be set up to facilitate criminal activity such as phishing, spam emails, identity theft and other servcice attacks to spread malware to other computers online.  When a user clicks on the email link, he automatically downloaded the malware and his computer system is infected.

It is very important to be extra careful in opening up any e-card emails. Make sure that you know the sender before opening e-cards.  Do not open any unsolicited e-mail and if you accidentally opened them, never click on any links provided.

How Does Identity Theft Happen?

Identity thieves use items like your driver’s license or Social Security number to assume your identity. With just a few items of personal information, an experienced identity thief can open new bank accounts and write bad checks, get new credit card accounts in your name and not pay the bills, get a personal, car loan or cash advances, create cellular phones accounts or utility services and start running up bills, change your mailing address and charge on your existing credit card accounts, illegally obtain employment or rent an apartment but refuse to pay the lease until being evicted. (more…)

With the increasing prevalence of phishing cases, we have learned that it’s best to protect ourselves from falling victim to this scam. We know now how to identify a phishing email and we’ve realized that it’s wise to just ignore it and not click on any links. However, there’s also a more proactive way to further combat this scam and that is - to report phishing.  (more…)

PayPal is a very useful and popular tool to send and receive electronic payments. It’s a trusted service as evident in the number of major players (Ebay, Dell, Barnes & Noble etc.) that use PayPal to accept credit card payments.

It’s generally a helpful tool but some problems might arise such as frozen/closed accounts and identity fraud. In order to prevent these problems, here are some tips: (more…)

Have you received countless emails saying they are from Nigeria or other African countries? Is the scenario of transferring money out of the country very familiar with you? If so, you have just experienced the popular Nigerian scams at work. (more…)

The Internet can both be heaven and hell for investors. On the brighter side, Internet is the tool for investors to search for investment opportunities, make their money through online trading, and monitor their finances through online banking, stock market and more. However, this can also a convenient tool for fraudsters. So, think twice before putting your money at risk, as there are countless kinds of Internet fraud going around. (more…)

There are more Paypal phishing schemes in the works all the times, it seems. In schemes to basically bait you to log into unsuspecting emails made to look like they’re from Paypal, thieves grab your account access info (user ID or email and password), steal your money and identity (identity theft) – and anything else they can, and take off and use it for their own gain.One of the latest schemes is the use of fake Paypal receipts, many with DELL on them. A sample is here: (more…)

I was prompted to write this article to warn people of these types of emails.  I have been doing business online for years and yesterday I received another one of these emails and was scared when I first saw it.  Here’s the email and Boy do they make it look so real.    (more…)

One of the latest phishing schemes is emails announcing that you have just received an online greeting card. They arrive in your in-box with subject headings like, “You’ve received an ecard (or greeting ecard) from a Neighbour (College, Family Member, Class Mate or other person)!”Now there are indeed legitimate greeting card companies that people use to send online ecards.

However, inside the email, you get two ways to get the ecard: clicking a link or accessing the companies’ website and enter with an access code that’s included in the email.However, these fake ecards with phishing schemes basically send you a link – and it’s full of mumbo-jumbo like lots and lots of numbers. And there’s no main website with a log in combination (user ID and password). The goal: to capture your personal and financial information (whatever they can get). (more…)

There are many scams out there on the internet, and criminals do come up with new ideas everyday. However, many scams are rehashed, and this article contains 4 of the most common scams on the internet to steal your identity or money.

• Online Auction Scam - With the advent of eBay, this scam really took off. You win an auction on a site like eBay and send off your money. Unfortunately you receive a fake or, even worse, nothing at all! Luckily, eBay has improved things with their seller ratings and with buyer protection measures. (more…)