Holiday Warning

Well, it is the time of year when you may be getting ready to get a new computer.  You may be looking for me to give you advice about what type of computer, tablet, phone, or other device to get. I hate to disappoint you but I feel there is something more important you should be reminded of again right now. 

I will give you a short description of what type of device to get.  First, pick a brand name item that you or your friends know.  You usually cannot go wrong with the larger companies.  You usually get much better hardware, processors and processes to handle the workload and tech support.  Next, get the one with the highest numbers you can afford.  Numbers you ask?  Yes, more RAM, more disk space, more speed, etc.

Now on to my concern.  For the last couple of weeks, and just today, I have been receiving many "scary" emails.  Not that they have a picture of a monster with big teeth.  They are from apparently major companies telling you one of several things.

I received several from Amazon and PayPal telling me that my account could have possibly been compromised. I was told to verify my information by clicking the log in link and changing my password. There was one little problem with those two right off.  They were sent to an email address that I do not have those accounts with…interesting. 

I, of course, clicked the link, but do not try this at home unless you are geek enough to know what is up. They took me to very good replicas of the actual sites.  How did I know they were not the real sites?  The URLs in the address bar were not those of Amazon.com or PayPal.com. If I had chosen to log into those sites some criminal would have gotten my username and password (since you need to use those to "change" your password).  They may have also asked for your secret questions and answers to verify your account.

Your account would then be owned by them. They would have logged into your real accounts, changed your password to one of their choosing and you could have then been the proud purchaser of someone else’s new tablet or computer. 

I received one from a very large prominent bank advising me that it was time for my annual account verification.  It was a large bank millions of people use.  However, it was not mine. They figure if they send out a million emails to people someone will have an account there and fall for the scam. I again went to the fake site and the real bank site. I could not distinguish any difference other than the URL. If someone fell for this one they would have all access to your bank account, debit cards attached to it and even change your mailing address, to name a few atrocities.  Ouch!  Please be careful! 

The big message here is how to avoid falling for these scams. Never click a link to any website that is emailed to you.  I have said it before but reputable companies will never, ever send you an email asking you to verify your account by clicking a link.  The only exception would be if you just called and spoke to someone and asked for that information to log into your account.  But I would still strongly suggest you type the URL into your browser yourself for real security.  

This is a particularly aggressive form of hijacking accounts at this great time of year!