scam – IT Connect

How to avoid the computer trap even TODAY’s Natalie Morales fell for

On Friday, our Chief Security Officer George Finney discussed the popularity of recent phone scams and how someone could hack you over the phone. While we focused on the cold-calling version of this scam, there is another popular one that masks itself as a warning pop-up notifying your that your system is infected. On this morning’s Today Show, Jeff Rossen showed how even national new anchor Natalie Morales can fall for one of these hacker tricks.

You can watch the full Rossen Report after the break.

Continue reading How to avoid the computer trap even TODAY’s Natalie Morales fell for

Phone Scam: Hacking Over The Phone

Members of the SMU Community have reported a number of phone calls in the last several weeks attempting to gain access to your computer. Usually, these callers will indicate that they have “noticed” that your computer has been infected with malware and will helpfully offer to fix it for you while on the phone. The caller will direct you to a website and request that you download software to help fix your PC, but you will actually be downloading malware. This will usually lock your computer and the person will require you to pay hundreds of dollars to unlock it. Continue reading Phone Scam: Hacking Over The Phone

Identify Online Shopping Scams

By Rajat Shetty During the holiday season, Cybercriminals’ potential victims are often caught up in the frenzy of shopping, finding the best deals, and acting quickly to take advantage of limited offers. Email and social networks are clogged with sales and offers, both legitimate and fraudulent. Sometimes haste causes shoppers to miss the warning signs of a fraudulent website.

Avoid Suspicious Websites

Make sure you cross check the contact info before submitting your payment details. In many cases, fake websites put up incorrect contact info like a wrong phone number or an incorrect address. A few other warning signs of suspicious websites are lots of broken links, grammatical mistakes, and spelling errors. If in doubt, don’t check out!

Verify the Web Address (or URL)

Before you type in any credit-card numbers at check out, check the Web address, or uniform resource locator (URL), of the payment page and make sure it’s using a secure connection. You should be seeing either the character string “https://” before the website URL, or a small icon of a green padlock. Also, make sure the URL address is correct, and not a slight misspelling of the real address or a random URL.

For example, check the snapshots below for the official website of Beats headphones. The first one is the original website, whereas the second website is a fraudulent one having the exact layout and font style as the original website. The difference is, when you pay through credit card or debit card on the 2^nd website you are not going to receive any headphones (Not even a fake one!)

Use Caution when Shopping by Phone

Although it can be convenient, use extra care when shopping with your smartphone. Phones are more susceptible to malwares as most do not have an anti-virus. Also, it’s highly unsafe to store your credit card or debit card information on your phone. Only buy from trusted and familiar websites when you shop through your smartphone, and use a password protected internet connection. Never shop over unsecured public Wi-fi. Remember, it’s always better to check twice before clicking the ok button. People loose thousands of dollars in a haste to snag online deals. Protect yourself from becoming a victim to fraudulent websites by exercising caution before giving out your credit/debit card details.