Home   |   About Us   |   Contact   |   Help Desk
Previous Next
News

Beware of Imitations! Security, Internet Scams and the African Real Estate Agenda

Fishing on the Internet has come a long way. However, we TechWeb junkies like to call it Phishing.

Mar 08, 2005

By Greg Richburg
Netricks, Inc.

Fishing on the Internet has come a long way. However, we TechWeb junkies like to call it Phishing. What I am talking about here is not going after your ordinary, everyday catch. Yet a fine catch it indeed may be to those thieving bandits if they can lure you into giving up your personal and private information. Trickery is vast and common on the World Wide Web. Beware, I say, beware!

Email schemes, called “phishing” or “carding”, attempt to trick consumers into disclosing personal and/or financial information. The emails appear to come from legitimate companies with whom consumers may regularly conduct business. I have seen scams appear to come from such noteworthy corporation as AOL, Earthlink, Paypal, eBay, or major credit card issuers. Often times the email threatens termination of accounts unless consumers billing information.

Phishing comes around in all forms. How many of you have had some Nigerian Prince that just inherited 35 million US dollars offer to share it with you for one reason or another? How many of you have received an e-mail supposedly from your bank that for “security reasons” requests you to click a link that takes you to an online form to fill out, requesting all your personal and confidential information about your bank account?

A word to the wise: there is no Prince in Nigeria that needs your help, and your bank will never ask you for that info in an e-mail!

The latest Internet scam appears to come from the South African Department of Mining. “Resources and we are in dire need of a foreign partner to assist us in the receipt and investment of US$15,500,000.00…” All they request is a secure place to deposit the lump sum on US territory, and you will gain a large piece of the pie. WOW, what a deal!

Another I received comes from Johnson Mgabe, the son of the leader of the Republic of Zimbabwe Agricultural Commission. His father has just been assassinated, and he, the only remaining heir, is trying to escape. If you help him, he will give you lots of dough! Right on! “Please e-mail and tell me of your decision. I am ready to pay you 25% of the money [$45.5 Million] for your help, 5% shall go for expenses you might incur during the transaction. The remainder [70%] shall be mine.”

Ok, ok, I am convinced; here is my private bank account, my SSN, DL# and address. Please tell me what I need to do next. Are they for real? Seriously though, if people didn’t fall for these types of stunts, there wouldn’t be so many floating around. Identity theft has become more and more rampant in this techno traveling world.

Again I say, beware.

Many of these email schemes contain links to “look-alike” websites that are loaded with actual trademarked images. The websites then instruct consumers to “reenter” their credit card numbers, social security numbers, bank PINs, or other personal information. If consumers actually provide the information requested, the data goes to scammers, not the legitimate company whose name is on the site. Thereafter, the data is often used to order goods or services and/or to obtain credit in the name of the consumer and potentially, steal your identity.

Again, I say, beware!

Rule for the road:

If you receive a precarious e-mail asking you for personal information, chances are it is a scam. It is better to be safe than sorry.

All past articles written by Greg Richburg are available at http://www.netricks.com/news. Please address article suggestions to: info@netricks.com.

Greg Richburg a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and the owner of Netricks, Inc. a network consulting, web design and hosting company located in Fresno, CA. Visit Netricks at http://www.netricks.com.

Services
Web Design & Hosting
Website Development and Hosting on a budget by Netricks offers money savings and high quality all at the same time. If a website owner needs to get the word out and drive traffic to their site, then here are some things ...

Marketing Solutions
Netricks is a company that creates a web design for business and marketing. Based in Fresno, California, this company has risen in the ranks and become one of the leaders in its field. If you are looking for an effective, ...

Custom Computers
By Greg Richburg Netricks, Inc. It has been almost 2 years since I last visited this topic, and to my amazement, this problem has grown to enormous proportions. Napster, Morpheus, Bearshare, Kazaa… Sound ...

Networking
A Baudelairen Experience By Greg Richburg, Netricks, Inc. “How many times must I shake my bells, And kiss thy low brow, dismal caricature? How many shafts, O my quiver be lost, Ere I hit the impalpable, ...

Address:
6446 N. Selland Ave.
Fresno, CA 93711

Telephone: 559.222.2500

E-mail: info@netricks.com
"Netricks migrated our entire domain network infrastructure seamlessly within one weekend. On Monday morning, everything was working beautifully; and is still working today. Thank You Netricks!"
Neil Thompson,
Stravinski Development Group
Netricks offers support services for contracted clients and non-contracted clients alike. We have a ticketing support site located at Netricks Tech Support and a remote control support system to allow our technicians to assist you with your technical issues from a remote location. For more info on remote support, please click below.

Remote Support Click here
Copyright ©  Fresno California Web Design and Hosting Company :: Netricks, Inc., All Rights Reserved.
Web Design & Hosting by Netricks