Bits & Bytes
Information Technology Support and Services offers technology tips in this column. To submit questions or suggestions for topics, contact the IT Service Desk, ext. 1-4000 or ITService@mcg.edu.
Protect yourself from e-mail scams
For centuries, con artists have attempted to get something for nothing, making a living swindling hard-working people out of their money. Modern technology makes it easier than ever to fool folks into giving out personal information. Scoundrels no longer need to meet you face to face; e-mail is an easy means to con you out of your money, even your identity.
The Federal Trade Commission reports that Internet-related complaints account for 46 percent of the more than 686,000 fraud and identity theft complaints in 2005. Let’s look at several of the different types of e-mail fraud floating around:
- Phishing. This usually involves an e-mail that appears to be from a
business, such as a bank, Paypal or Ebay. The e-mails often appear
authentic, using business logos, official-looking links and
professional-sounding messages. They all request some sort of
verification and require you to enter personal information, such as your
bank account and ATM personal identification numbers, Social Security
number or credit card information.
- Advanced fee fraud. The most popular form is the Nigerian 419 scam,
asking you to help transfer funds from one account to another in return
for a portion of the money. All you have to do is send a loan.
- False lotteries. These request a small fee to collect your winnings, and the offer of a free gift requires you to pay for shipping and handling.
Several steps can be taken to avoid falling for these and other Internet scams:
- Never reply to an e-mail that requests personal or financial
information.
- Do not copy and paste links from Web sites from these e-mails.
Scammers can make links appear to go to one site while they actually
send you somewhere else.
- Do not call phone numbers listed in e-mails. If you want to contact
a place that you do business with, call the number on your financial
statement, or look up the number in the phone book.
- Review your credit information regularly. Free credit reports are available from:
- Forward spam that is phishing for information to spam@uce.gov, to
the company, bank or organization impersonated in the e-mail and to
reportphishing@antiphishing.org.
- Never open an attachment from someone you do not know. If you know
the sender, make sure he actually sent the attachment.
For more information, visit:
or the Federal Trade Commission's Identity Theft site:
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