Spoof Emails

Is there no end to these Spoof Emails I receive each day?

What is a Spoof Email? Surely you know. Surely you've received them. You haven't? Well, I guess you must be the only one. I'm kind of jealous.

A Spoof email is an email received that pretends to be sent from somewhere else in order to get information from you. They are predominantly, if not totally, sent by fraudsters looking to steal your identity or take over your bank account to extract funds. Some coding will alter or disguise the email address they've originally been sent from.

These fake emails will be made to look like they're from financial institutions such as world banks, but also heavily include PayPal and eBay. If you suspect a Spoof email regarding the last two you should forward them either to Spoof@ebay.com or Spoof@PayPal.com.

Typically the Spoof email will announce some sort of minor or major disaster that needs your attention. There will be a link for you to click to be taken to the site...

DON'T CLICK IT, YOU WILL BE TAKEN TO A DUMMY SITE THE FRAUDSTER HAS SET UP. THEY WANT YOU TO TYPE IN YOUR USER NAME AND PASSWORD SO THEY CAN STEAL THEM.

Remember: No financial institution will ever send you an email with a link to click in it that takes you to a sign on screen.

How the Fraudsters obtrain your email address in the first place is one of heated debate, but presumably it must have been leaked from somewhere. Data Protection is supposed to protect all your details given to any company. They are not supposed to give them out.

Be careful. Some of the Spoof emails are a lot more sophisticated than others. Some are riddled with spelling errors, some are very professional. Remember... never click on email links. Instead, go directly to the Financial Institutions website and check your account status there or phone them.

Spoof emails I have received today are from three banks I have no account with and are even based in a different country. Desperate stuff.

Always be vigilant and don't let the Fraudsters win.

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www.jenkin7 - www.jenkin7.com
Giftware & Collectables

Dead or not Dead, that is the Twitter Celebrity Question.

The answer is probably "Not dead".

I've noticed a rather macabre trend perhaps starting to develop on the micro-blogging network, Twitter. This is the trend for fake reporting of Celebrity deaths. It is somewhat disturbing.

When Michael Jackson sadly passed away in June of this year, his death was one of the most mentioned things on Twitter for over two months. It became the number 1, "Trending Topic".

After this something really odd happened. A rumour started from an individual or individuals that the actor, Jeff GoldBlum, had died. Although completely false, this topic soon become a top trender also. It became such a problem that Mr Goldblum had to come out and publicly announce that he was still alive. Most people believed him.

It would outwardly appear, that if a user is bored on Twitter, they may invent a story that a famous celebrity has died in order to get it into the Top Trending Topics list. This seems pretty desperate stuff and I hope it isn't something that's going to continue... but alas it probably will do.

The latest fake celebrity death to trend is Kanye West. It's a bit tricky to know what to believe anymore. If anyone reports the death of Elvis Presley, I for one, won't believe them.

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www.jenkin7 - www.jenkin7.com
Giftware & Collectables