British Beauty Queen Hijacked!

Am I being a little sensationalistic? I may be, however no one ever said that Beauty Queens were the brightest of the bunch. Cases like this are why I suggest that people be required to have a driver's license for the Internet.

Miss Scarborough has become the latest victim of online phishing fraudsters, with the the beauty contest winner having had £10,000 stolen from her bank account.

Jade Saunders, a 20-year-old student, was crowned Miss Scarborough in April this year, and is also a semi-finalist for Miss England 2008.

Saunders reportedly clicked on a link in an e-mail purporting to be from her bank, which took her to a genuine-looking, but fake, website. By entering her security log-in details on the fake site, Saunders provided the cybercriminals with all they needed to set up a standing order on her account for £10,000.

Alright, Here are a few checkpoints upon receiving an email from a seemingly legitimate source

[] IS IT FROM A LEGITIMATE SOURCE? LEGIT COMPANIES DO NOT USE FREE EMAIL ACCOUNTS
(Free Emails such as Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail)
[] IS THE EMAIL GRAMMATICALLY INCORRECT
(Legit Companies typically don't spell words improperly)
[] IS THE EMAIL UNFORMATTED? (i.e No breaks, Paragraphs, Letterhead, Etc.)
(Companies will usually use some sort of professional formatting)
[] IS EMAIL STATING THAT YOU MUST ENTER PERSONAL INFORMATION?
(Companies do not ask for Passwords, SS #'s, or Bank Info)
[] DOES THE EMAIL STATE THAT CHARGES ARE BEING MADE TO YOUR ACCOUNT?
(If so, contact the companies customer support phone number immediately)
[] IS THERE A LINK? If you have checkmarks above, DO NOT CLICK!
(If so, hover your mouse over the link and a box will come up and say where it goes. If it Is not the company's website- Do Not Click!)

IF the email makes you feel uneasy at all, in general, don't click anything at all.
When you enter information on a phisher's website, he has all the information to take out a line of credit, transfer funds, or do any number of other unscrupulous things. Companies will not ask you to enter information in order to verify anything, and if you do recieve such an email- be sure to immediately contact the company in question on the phone support line.

BE SAFE ONLINE! IF NOT, YOU MAY SUFFER BIG LOSS IN THE REAL WORLD.

Alert: LinkedIN Scams Rampant

Have you heard of the professional networking site linkedin? Well, a number of professional users (Including Myself) have been using this site to increase their job prospects, clientele,  and associates. It seems that more and more, professional scam artists are trying to prey off of the unsuspecting users of LinkedIn. It seems that common sense isn't all that common. Just because someone has a LinkedIn profile- Doesn't mean that they are trustworthy.

     Unsuspecting professionals, driven by the urge to make quick millions off of a simple transaction, willingly turn over their bank information to a person who has made their acquaintance online. Why? Well, the scammers are using a '419 Scam'. What happens is the attacker claims to have inherited/ claimed a large sum of money, and is willing to give you a large fee to deposit the newly acquired funds into a US Bank account.

The best possible way to prevent this kind of attack is to: (A) Only accept mail from people you know, Or who have a related Interest (B) Never execute any financial transactions based solely upon knowledge recieved via virtual communications, Be it Email, Social Networking, Or other communications.  Unless you know the person, don't allow someone access to your account.