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Payment applications make splitting restaurant bills, taxi fares, and household expenses so much easier. Without having to tally totals at the table or fumble with crumpled bills, you and your companions can spend less stress and more time on the fun at hand.
There are various payment apps available, and the company that may first come to mind is PayPal. PayPal is regarded as a safe platform where security and strong encryption are a priority; however, a recent and advanced phishing scam is putting PayPal users at risk of giving up large sums of money and their personally identifiable information (PII).1
Let’s look at this “triple-pronged” PayPal phishing scam and review some tips to help you identify and proceed should you encounter it.
The typical part of this three-sided scam is the phishing email component. According to one source, the phishing email comes from a legitimate-looking PayPal service email address. Luckily, the typos, odd punctuation, extra spaces, and grammar errors in the body of the email give away that it is a phishing attempt. Remember, phishing emails are often worded poorly or have errors. Large companies, especially ones like PayPal, have teams of content experts vetting all automated messages for such mistakes, so several mistakes in an email should set off your alarm bells. Proceed with caution and do not click on any links in the message.
The email also included wording that encouraged the user to act quickly or be charged a lot of money. That’s another trademark of phishing emails: urgency. Take a deep breath and make sure to reread carefully all emails that “require” a quick response. Don’t be scared by dire consequences. Phishers rely on people to rush and not give themselves time to listen to their better judgement.
The PayPal phishing email included a support phone number that claimed it was toll free. In actuality, it was an international phone number. So, if the recipient of the phishing email didn’t quite believe the message but wanted to follow up, the scam could catch them with what’s called a one-ring phone scam.2 This occurs when someone unknowingly calls an international phone number and then gets charged by their phone company for the long-distance call.
The best way to avoid one-ring phone scams is to never call a number you don’t recognize. Always go to an organization’s official website to find their contact information.
The third dimension of this PayPal scam was the international phone number in the phishing email connected the caller directly with the scammer who posed as the PayPal fraud department. The “customer service representative” then asked prying personal and financial questions to glean enough PII to break into a PayPal account or compromise the caller’s identity. This is the most damaging part of the scam. An excellent customer support team may be able to reimburse you your lost money; however, once your personal details are in nefarious hands, you can’t take them back.
In addition to never calling numbers you haven’t verified, never give out passwords and never give out more personal information than you need to. Even in legitimate customer service calls, it’s not rude to ask why the representative requires the information they’re asking for. In a fake call, questions like that may fluster the scammer, so keep an ear tuned to their tone.
Overall, our best advice for handling suspicious emails is to delete them. If it’s truly important, the sender will contact you again. And if a thief somehow stole money from one of your payment apps, the customer service team should be able to walk you through the steps to recover it.
The transfer and handling of large sums of money would make anyone nervous. To give you peace of mind, consider partnering with a service that can help you recover should you ever fall for a scheme and compromise your PII. McAfee+ Ultimate helps you live your best life in private, and the service includes credit monitoring with all three credit bureaus, security freeze, and expert online support to help you navigate any scams you encounter.
Having McAfee+ can protect you from email phishing scams like this. Here are some of the top agencies to report this scam to, if it happens to you: Paypal Fraud Department, Federal Trade Commision , Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency USA.gov IC3
“Report it. Forward phishing emails to reportphishing@apwg.org (an address used by the Anti-Phishing Working Group, which includes ISPs, security vendors, financial institutions, and law enforcement agencies). Let the company or person that was impersonated know about the phishing scheme.” – FTC.gov
1ZDNET, “Watch out for this triple-pronged PayPal phishing and fraud scam.”
2Federal Communications Commission, “‘One Ring’ Phone Scam.”
The post A PayPal Email Scam Is Making the Rounds: Here’s How to Identify and Avoid It appeared first on McAfee Blog.
With regular marketing emails from brands, businesses, and subscription services, our email accounts are more cluttered than ever. The number of daily emails exchanged globally reached an estimated 319 billion in 2021. Unfortunately, the chances that these emails were spam or junk are quite high. In fact, 45% of all email traffic came from spam emails as of December 2021.
With emails often being the preferred mode of communication for official purposes, it’s important to observe good digital hygiene with your inbox. While a cluttered inbox can be overwhelming, it can also double as a cybersecurity threat. Junk emails that contain malware or act as phishing tools are notorious for wreaking havoc in IT systems or aiding identity theft.
Are you tired of opening your inbox to a barrage of unwanted emails? Read this article to learn how to block or eliminate spam emails.
We know you didn’t sign up to be spammed by unwanted emails. So why is your inbox overflowing with spam messages? It could be one of many reasons, including:
Companies also often share information that you’ve entered during registration with other businesses. Applications for loyalty cards and discount coupons at checkout are also sources of customer information for companies. Although companies are mandated to ask permission before sharing your personal information with affiliates, users often ignore the fine print. So, how do you block these unwanted emails?
Fortunately, most email services let you block this contact or other specific email addresses by following a few simple steps. Usually, just notifying your email service that a certain sender is spamming you does the job. The process varies according to the email provider used. Read on to find out how to keep your inbox clean.
Gmail users can block spam mail using the Gmail app or web app. Follow the steps below to block emails while using the web app:
Open a message from the sender you wish to block. If you don’t have a recent email from them, search their address or name in the search box at the top of the page.
Doing this will cause all future emails from this sender to enter your spam folder. If you block someone you didn’t intend to, follow the same procedure to unblock and start receiving mail from their address.
Follow these steps to block an address using the Outlook (the new Hotmail) web app:
By marking the email as junk, Outlook filters and sends all further emails from the sender to your spam folder.
Like all other service providers, the process of blocking a sender from your Yahoo mail account is quite straightforward. Use your web app and follow these steps to get rid of junk mail from your inbox:
Alternatively, you can also block a sender from the Settings menu.
You can unblock any address by navigating to “Blocked addresses” using the same steps and unblock any ID.
To proactively block senders from your AOL Mail inbox, follow the steps below using your web browser:
Following these simple steps marks all future emails from the chosen sender as spam and sends them to the spam folder.
The Apple iOS email app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac only recently allowed unsubscribing from mailing lists. It still doesn’t let you block senders. Follow the steps detailed below to filter and unsubscribe from senders:
Flag any email as spam by forwarding the email to spam@icloud.com.
Widely used and accepted email services are a frequent target of cyberattacks. Attackers can use email to gain control or access your personal information and resources.
Securing email systems is crucial since your email might contain a lot of sensitive information, including financial documents, legal information, important personal documents, or even trade secrets.
As an email sender and receiver, you should be aware of the most common ways the service is used to infect a computer.
A general rule of thumb is to verify and review download links, forms, and email addresses of the sender before clicking on them, as they can pose significant threats to your cybersecurity. If you receive an email from someone you trust but it contains a link that you find suspicious, multiple websites can analyze URLs and files for malware.
Keeping an email system safe involves securing the servers of the client and the user. As an informal email system user, it can be hard to mitigate and manage risks posed by malicious emails on your own.
Fortunately, you can utilize McAfee+and Identity Theft Protection. McAfee ensures complete cyber protection with advanced monitoring, customized tips according to your usage, and data clean-ups. With multiple subscription plans at your disposal, you can protect yourself and your family from all kinds of cyberthreats.
The post How to Block Emails appeared first on McAfee Blog.
You get an email from bank0famerica@acc0unt.com claiming that they have found suspicious activity on your credit card statement and are requesting that you verify your financial information. What do you do? While you may be tempted to click on a link to immediately resolve the issue, this is likely the work of a cybercriminal. Phishing is a scam that tricks you into voluntarily providing important personal information. Protect yourself from phishing by reviewing some examples of phishing emails and learning more about this common online scam.
Phishing is a cybercrime that aims to steal your sensitive information. Scammers disguise themselves as major corporations or other trustworthy entities to trick you into willingly providing information like website login credentials or, even worse, your credit card number.
A phishing email or text (also known as SMiShing) is a fraudulent message made to look legitimate, and typically asks you to provide sensitive personal information in various ways. If you don’t look carefully at the emails or texts, however, you might not be able to tell the difference between a regular message and a phishing message. Scammers work hard to make phishing messages closely resemble emails and texts sent by trusted companies, which is why you need to be cautious when you open these messages and click the links they contain.
Phishing scammers often undo their own plans by making simple mistakes that are easy to spot once you know how to recognize them. Check for the following signs of phishing every time you open an email or text:
Even the biggest companies sometimes make minor errors in their communications. Phishing messages often contain grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and other blatant errors that major corporations wouldn’t make. If you see multiple, glaring grammatical errors in an email or text that asks for your personal information, you might be a target of a phishing scam.
To enhance their edibility, phishing scammers often steal the logos of who they’re impersonating. In many cases, however, they don’t steal corporate logos correctly. The logo in a phishing email or text might have the wrong aspect ratio or low-resolution. If you have to squint to make out the logo in a message, the chances are that it’s phishing.
Phishing always centers around links that you’re supposed to click. Here are a few ways to check whether a link someone sent you is legitimate:
If the URL you discover doesn’t match up with the entity that supposedly sent you the message, you probably received a phishing email.
Phishing messages come in all shapes and sizes, but there are a few types of phishing emails and texts that are more common than others. Let’s review some examples of the most frequently sent phishing scams:
Some phishing emails appear to notify you that your bank temporarily suspended your account due to unusual activity. If you receive an account suspension email from a bank that you haven’t opened an account with, delete it immediately, and don’t look back. Suspended account phishing emails from banks you do business with, however, are harder to spot. Use the methods we listed above to check the email’s integrity, and if all else fails, contact your bank directly instead of opening any links within the email you received.
Two-factor authentication scam
Two-factor authentication (2FA) has become common, so you’re probably used to receiving emails that ask you to confirm your login information with six-digit numerical codes. Phishing scammers also know how standard 2FA has become, and they could take advantage of this service that’s supposed to protect your identity. If you receive an email asking you to log in to an account to confirm your identity, use the criteria we listed above to verify the message’s authenticity. Be especially wary if someone asks you to provide 2FA for an account you haven’t accessed for a while.
We all know how important tax season is. That’s what phishing scammers are counting on when they send you phony IRS refund emails. Be careful when an email informs you that you’ve received a windfall of cash and be especially dubious of emails that the IRS supposedly sent since this government agency only contacts taxpayers via snail mail. Tax refund phishing scams can do serious harm since they usually ask for your social security number as well as your bank account information.
Sometimes, cybercriminals will try to tick you by sending emails with fake order confirmations. These messages often contain “receipts” attached to the email or links claiming to contain more information on your order. However, criminals often use these attachments and links to spread malware to the victim’s device.
You need to be wary of phishing when you’re using your work email as well. One popular phishing scam involves emails designed to look like someone in the C-suite of your company sent them. They ask workers to wire funds to supposed clients, but this cash actually goes to scammers. Use the tips we listed above to spot these phony emails.
Often, hackers look for ways to update old schemes so that they go undetected by users already aware of certain cyberthreats. Such is the case with the latest phishing evasion technique, which detects virtual machines to fly under the radar. Cybersecurity firms often use headless devices or virtual machines (a computer file that behaves like an actual computer) to determine if a website is actually a phishing page. But now, some phishing kits contain JavaScript — a programming language that allows you to implement complex features on web pages — that checks whether a virtual machine is analyzing the page. If it detects any analysis attempts, the phishing kit will show a blank page instead of the phishing page, allowing the scam to evade detection. To help ensure that you don’t fall for the latest phishing scams, stay updated on the most recent phishing techniques so you can stay one step ahead of cybercriminals.
Never click links in suspicious emails. If you click a link you suspect a phishing scammer sent, the link will take you to a web page with a form where you can enter sensitive data such as your Social Security number, credit card information, or login credentials. Do not enter any data on this page.
If you accidentally enter data in a webpage linked to a suspicious email, perform a full malware scan on your device. Once the scan is complete, backup all of your files and change your passwords. Even if you only provided a phishing scammer with the data from one account, you may have also opened the door to other personal data, so it’s important to change all the passwords you use online in the wake of a suspected phishing attack.
Let’s wrap things up with some summarized tips on how to avoid phishing emails:
Phishing emails only work on the unaware. Now that you know how to spot phishing emails and what to do if you suspect scammers are targeting you, you’re far less likely to fall for these schemes. Remember to be careful with your personal information when you use the internet and err on the side of caution whenever anybody asks you to divulge sensitive details about your identity, finances, or login information.
To stay updated on all things McAfee and on top of the latest consumer and mobile security threats, follow @McAfee_Home on Twitter, subscribe to our email, listen to our podcast Hackable?, and ‘Like’ us on Facebook.
The post Phishing Email Examples: How to Recognize a Phishing Email appeared first on McAfee Blogs.
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