-Creeps cyber in to your online emails
-Scammers new trick to invade your privacy
15 September, 2012
The email above is a particularly bad phishing email that is doing the rounds lately. It is the most authentic looking that I have seen to date. It has all of the right logos and even correct spelling and punctuation. It reads logically and wants the victim to go to a link to verify their email account. It uses the threat of Windows account suspension to motivate the reader to do this.
The Internet page that it takes you to also looks authentic with the correct logos for Yahoo, Gmail, Windows Live and AOL. Once you select your email provider you can enter your account username and password in separate fields and click confirm. It then redirects you to a genuine Microsoft update site. This would add further credence to the hoax and leave the user thinking that they have done the right thing.
This hoax if executed would then give the creators full access to you emails. This gives them an effective key for further unlocking other important sites that the user may have accounts with. Sites such as eBay, Internet Shopping Sites, Twitter, Facebook & Apple ID accounts can be unlocked with a password reset request – which is sent back to your email account. They could even gain access to you PayPal account and add an extra card which could then be verified and have money spent on it.
People need to be wary of any email they get requesting a course of action – especially if this involves verifying any usernames or passwords.
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