BBB Launches Scam Alert Text Service
As a proud member of the Greater Cleveland Better Business Bureau, I was exciteed to see the announcement earlier this month about a new service for consumers and business owners in which they will deliver scam alerts to you via text message. You can read the full article here, but here is an excerpt:
For Immediate Release – July 19, 2013 – Want to be the first to know about the latest telemarketing scam hitting our area? Or be alerted to deceptive door-to-door sales? Or phony charity soliciting? Or “too good to be true” free offers? Its as easy as signing up for Better Business Bureau’s new Scam Alerts delivered by text messages.
To sign up – simply text SCAM to 24587. We will keep you informed of the latest scams and help you avoid becoming the next victim.
Scam Alerts – Antivirus and AntiMalware software for your life
Much like we need to be alerted to the bad people out there trying to take an opportunity for a quick buck at the cost of others, our computers need to be protected with their own “Scam Alerts.” Some are obvious: I am a diplomat in South Africa and I need you to wire me money, but I will pay you back if you give me all of your personal data.” Others, however, aren’t so obvious…
Take, for example, the recently discovered scam being spread via Skype that is designed to steal the log in credentials for Skype users by dangling free premium upgrades. According to MalwareBytes:
The scam starts off with a user receiving the following message from one of his or her friends:
hey go to hxxp://www.SkyPremiumSetup.com/ and activate your account, Skype is giving away free premium for life to a few thousand people. Once you have it, you can do group video calls and a ton of other cool stuff. i got to head out now but I’ll ttyl for sure!
After clicking on the link, the user is sent to the site seen below and required to enter his or her username and password to activate the free premium account. In reality, there is no free premium upgrade and if you had actually fallen for this tactic, the bad guys would now have your Skype log in credentials. In addition, a good tip off that this is in fact a real scam is the incorrect grammar used in the title text. First of all “receive” is spelled incorrectly and Life Long should be one word. Maybe nothing that you would notice immediately but errors in text and formatting are always a great way to determine the legitimacy of something you come across online.
It is important for every SMB owner, and any computer owner for that matter, to ensure each and every PC, tablet, and smartphone on your network is protected and up-to-date with the most current Anti-Virus and Antimalware software of your choosing.
Take advantage of Great Lakes Computer’s Free 27 Point Network Security Audit to determine if you are taking the right steps to protect your network from Scammers.
Learn more about the author Bob Martin
