Scams to watch out for
Have you seen emails regarding Australia Post deliveries, a long lost relative leaving you money, FBI warning about imminent proceedings, Bank verifying details, and the list goes on.
Here are a few recent ones to be on the look out for.
- Australia Post advising they failed to deliver a parcel and to click on a link in an email to confirm details. This actually install’s a type of virus called ‘Rasomware’. It encrypts your files and asks for a ransom payment to unencrypted them. Australia Post advise they will never:
- Send you an email asking you to click on an attachment
- Email you to reconfirm your physical mailing address by clicking on a link
- Banks asking you click on a link to verify your details. This will never happen and every bank stated on their websites that they will never email you for details or verification.
- FBI warning that you are being investigated for……..anything. If you are being officially investigated by the FBI, you will know about it. You will not simply get a email advising you of this.
- Windows advising you that you have a virus and you need to contact them. Again, if you have a virus, you will know about it and you wont get a email about it. Some advise your computer is running slow as a cause of the virus, which you might say ‘yeah, I thought my computer was running a little slower than usual’. Unless you pay a company to monitor your computers and to be notified if there are any issues, you wont be notified out of the blue.
BEST RULE TO FOLLOW – If in doubt, don’t do it and contact your IT support company if you have any issues