I have just made aware of yet another phishing scam, this time involving Facebook.
Every few days someone tried to get people to click on fake links in official sounding emails and people are unfortunately still falling for it.
It’s quite simple. If a company sends an email to you saying there’s a problem with your account then go to the company’s web site directly.
Delete the email immediately !
These links are fake and dangerous. They lead to fake websites that steal passwords and install viruses onto your computer, that also not only steal more passwords as you type them but send out copies of the email you just received to the emails you’ve got in your contact list.
Some of these viruses also take over your computer, so it’s best to just delete these emails immediately and to install virus/malware scanners that will look for these viruses in the email you receive.
Microsoft currently offers windows users a free software package that can be used to protect Windows based machines.
Microsoft Security Essentials will protect machines against viruses, spyware and malware. But I also recommend the use of alternative browsers like Firefox, which is more secure, as well as web based email, like Gmail, whose email is usually scanned for viruses and spam.
I also like the immunity function of Spybot-Search and Destroy, which instructs your browser to prevent certain suspect scripts and websites from loading up. But you need to turn off real time protection if you’re using another virus scanning program.
Some of you may already have anti-virus and anti-spyware software pre-installed on your computers. Or some of you may have software provided to you by your internet providers. You should always update these regularly to address the latest threats. But even with this software installed it’s best to consider all emails of this nature to be potential threats.