The spam you don’t see
You may think you get a lot of spam but apparently it could be even worse. Many ISPs apply spam filters that block mail from ever being delivered. According to a report at ZDNet (UK), the European Network and Information Security Agency says less than 5% of spam is actually delivered. That may be true [...]
Email scams and the multi-billion dollar ripoffs
There’s the Nigerian scam, the fake lottery winnings, the phony bank message, fake Facebook friends, bogus account cancellations, greeting card scams, fake delivery messages, phony government agency alerts, the list goes on and on. They’re all email scams; some are hilariously inept, others are ingenious and very clever. They all have the same purpose—to [...]
Fake Adobe Reader phishing scam
Adobe reader always seems to need security updates and the phishers are playing on that. PC World reports:
A new phishing scam is trying to fool people into thinking it comes from Adobe, announcing a new version of PDF Reader/Writer. The message is making its way into e-mail boxes now, and the real Adobe urged any [...]
Review of Thunderbird email client
These days I only use web-based email so I have no experience with the email client Thunderbird from Mozilla. However, I thought I’d point out that Walt Mossberg has just reviewed the new version 3 of Thunderbird. His headline is, “New Mozilla Email Is Easier to Use, But Not Easy Enough”.
Any Thunderbird users out there [...]
Tips for using Gmail
A lot of people are now using Gmail as their email client. Because I began with Yahoo mail long ago, I haven’t personally used Gmail much but I think it’s worth pointing out that Google has a series of pages with many tips for using Gmail. The format is a little cutsie-pie with talk of [...]
Watch out for Haiti disaster scams
PC World reports:
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is advising people to be careful when evaluating donation programs related to the earthquake in Haiti as one security firm is already seeing scam e-mails circulate.
People should apply a “critical eye” to requests for financial donations following Tuesday’s earthquake in Haiti, which caused an unknown number of [...]
Thunderbird 3 released
A lot of home PC users who still use local email clients have found themselves left out in the cold by Microsoft. Outlook Express hasn’t been updated in years. The name was changed to Windows Mail in Vista but not much else was new. Windows 7 doesn’t even have an email client included; you have [...]
Fake swine flu emails
Another scam is circulating; this time it’s fake emails purporting to be from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. The phony email claims it is about creating a profile for an H1N1 vaccination program. CNET reports:
The fake alert informs recipients that as part of a “State Vaccination H1N1 Program” they need to create a profile [...]
How to copy a picture from an email or Web page
I received an email from someone who wanted to know how to copy a picture from his Outlook Express mail. I assume the picture is in the body of the email and not just an attachment. It’s very simple to copy a picture from any HTML formatted email as well as from many other kinds [...]
Beware the 12 scams of Christmas
The holiday season is big business for everybody, including scammers. In an interview with CNET, security firm McAfee gives its list of the 12 scams of Christsmas. Slightly paraphrased, these are:
Charitable phishing scams
Fake invoices from delivery services
Phony social networking friend requests
Fake holiday e-cards
Fake “luxury” jewelry
Hacked or phony holiday shopping sites
Sites with Infected Christmas carol lyrics
Job [...]
Another Facebook phish
The popularity of Facebook means it’s an inviting target for the cybercrooks. Another phishing attack is going around. TrendMicro describes the exploit:
Trend Micro security experts received email messages that supposedly came from Facebook. It asks recipients to update their login credentials for security purposes. It then instructs them to click the URL provided in the [...]
