I've noticed a new breed of phishing
scammers lately. They've gotten more
sophisticated in their attempts to trick, cajole, and outright scare you into
falling into their trap. The emails are
written by someone fluent in English and are even doing a pretty good job of
mimicking the company they are pretending to be.
The scammers of old seem to have fallen
away, those all too predictable and obvious pathetic attempts with poorly
spelled words, atrocious grammar errors, and the glaring obvious that they know
very little of the English language and are completely oblivious or just don't
care.
As published authors we have to put
ourselves out there, always marketing and schmoozing online like the girl at
the young teen dance who so desperately wants to be asked to dance, but no one
seems to notice her in the corner behind all the other girls desperate to be
asked to dance.
The problem with making yourself visible to
as many others as possible in the hopes that just one or two might actually buy
your book, is that you are also making yourself visible to the spammers,
phishers, and hackers.
Apparently a phisherman of this newer breed
noticed me on Amazon. I suddenly am
getting all these urgent messages that my Amazon account is in dire peril.
How do I know it phishing? It's not that hard to figure out, really. Just be smart and stop and think before you
panic and click that link or give any information. And when in doubt, just back out. Stand up and take a step back and close that
email. Picking up a phone to call
customer service (if they have one!) will sort it all out. If they have no real people working for them,
then go to the actual legitimate website and contact them with all the
details. They will no doubt tell you
that you just got phished.
Keys and tips to protect yourself from
phishing:
1.
Don't make your email
public. Really, how many of your
"fans" need to email you?
There are safer ways to do set that up.
Do you think Stephen King put out his private email to the public? Not a creepy clown down the sewer chance! Of course, that's sometimes easier said than
done whenever media site defaults to publishing your email.
2.
Use multiple email
accounts. Use a spam email for social
networking sites where you know you are likely to get spammed by the site or
phishing scams. Never use the same email
that you use for banking and other important business.
3.
If the email is asking for
personal information, bank account or credit information, passwords, or for you
click a link to log in securely - IT'S A PHISHING SCAM! As soon as you log in through their link they
have your username and password, giving them full access to your account.
4.
It doesn't matter what the
account is: your bank, Facebook, Paypal, Amazon, etc they will never contact you asking for you to
click a link and provide information that gives access to your account. They will instead direct you to visit their
legitimate site to access your account securely or contact them.
5.
Check the IP or senders
email. Big red flag: all the Amazon's
calling and your account is in grave danger and has been shut down emails are
coming from "noreply@amazon.ca".
Now here's the dead giveaway: the sender's email shows up as "noreply@azon.ca". But that is almost Amazon you say? Yes, but do you not think a multi
billion-dollar corporation would get that right?
6.
Did it
even come to the right email address? I've had plenty of warnings that my bank
accounts are in imminent danger. Usually
the first giveaway is that it's a bank I don't have an account with, or sent to
the wrong email.
The phishermen may have gotten smarter and
more sophisticated, but common sense is pretty smart and sophisticated too.
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