Email scam warning

Scam of the Week: “Shipping Problem”

We have Black Friday and Cyber Monday behind us. After losing ground to online competitors, brick-and-mortar retailers have struck back with incredible online deals. Wal-Mart said Thanksgiving was its second biggest day ever for online sales and Target’s online buying was up 40% over last year.

This is the time of year that people buy new smartphones, TVs and new game consoles because they are able to get killer deals and now they are dying to get their hands on these new goodies.

What you may not know is that similar to a magazine’s editorial calendar, criminal hackers have a “scam calendar” which focuses on events exactly like this. They have campaigns planned and ready to roll starting TODAY for the rest of the month.

These malware campaigns do not discriminate between the home and the office. Roughly a billion of these criminal emails are sent each day.

“Scammers are preying on people that have just made a lot of online purchases on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. There are several scam campaigns being sent right now.

1. Be on the lookout for “Shipping Problem” emails from FedEx, UPS or the US Mail, where the email claims they tried to deliver a package from (for instance Apple Computer) but could not deliver due to an incomplete address. “Please click on the link to correct the address and you will get your package.” If you do, your computer is likely to get infected with malware. Warn everyone in the family, especially teenagers.
2. Watch out for alerts via a TEXT to your smartphone that “confirm delivery” from FedEx, UPS or the US Mail, and then asks you for some personal information. Don’t enter anything.
3. There is a fake refund scam going on that could come from a big retailer. It claims there was a “wrong transaction” and wants you to “click for refund” but instead, your device will be infected with malware.

Especially in these times, Think Before You Click!