The Internet makes it easier to accomplish many things - banking, research, travel and shopping are all at our virtual fingertips. And just as the Internet makes it easier for legitimate pursuits, it also makes it easier for scammers, con artists and other online miscreants to carry out their virtual crimes - impacting our real life finances, security and peace of mind. These Internet scams are constantly evolving - here are the most common today.
1. Killer spam: Hitman email threatens recipients
Imagine opening your email inbox and reading a message from an alleged assassin - claiming you're the target. It sounds like something out of a horror movie, but it's been happening in real life to hundreds of people. The gist of the email - pay the hitman thousands of dollars or die.
2. Lottery winning scams
Lottery winner scamsattempt to trick recipients into believing they have won large sums of cash, and then bilks them out of their own dough in a similar fashion to the Nigerian 419 scam.
3. Fraudulent link scams
Scams, in general, are the new malware delivery method. Social engineering is the norm. Falsifying a link is the hallmark of phishing scams, seeded downloader Trojans, and other web-based malware. And it's all trivially easy to do, using basic HTML.
4. Rogue antispyware/fake antivirus
Rogue software erroneously claims the system is infected and instructs the user to purchase a 'full version' in order to clean the bogus infections. Sometimes, fake antivirus software gets installed by the user who fell victim to an advertising scam. Other times, a rogue antispyware scanner may be installed by exploit, a so called 'drive-by install'. Regardless of how the rogue software gets installed, the user is often left with a hijacked, crippled system. To avoid becoming a victim, before installing any software over the Internet search on the name of the product using your favorite search engine. Don't skip this step and you'll go a long ways towards a safer online experience.
5. Local companies
Do not use your credit card online unless you know the website company is legitimate. You can contact BahamasLocal.com for more information.
Tips
• If you get an email or pop-up message that asks for personal or financial information, do not reply.
• Use anti-virus and anti-spyware software, as well as a firewall, and update them all regularly.
• Never email personal or financial information. o Be cautious about opening any attachment or downloading any files from emails.
• Forward spam that is phishing for information to spam@uce.gov.
• Online Edge is a weekly feature aiming to improve how you interact with technology. For more information on this article, you can send an email to customerservice@bahamaslocal.com, or call 676-2683. BahamasLocal.com is a user-friendly search engine with exclusive listings on business and community organizations in The Bahamas. It includes information pertaining to business, news, classifieds, movie listings and local events.
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