mysecurepc

I received a very real-looking email from PayPal with the subject line: “PayPal Notification: Payments and Statement”. The crux of the message was they debited my business account for $32.00. No reason given.

The link to view my Account Summary contained paypal.com but hovering my mouse over it showed it went to somehost.lan.io domain…obviously a fake.

The email was forwarded to spoof@paypal.com which brought a quick reply saying the email was, indeed, a spoof and they will take care of it. This event goes back to one of mysecurepc.com’s tenets: do not click on any email link.

Doug

Instead of paying big bucks for a credit monitoring service, you can do nearly everything yourself at no cost. We put together a list of steps for being your own identity theft monitor you can perform. It takes a little perseverance but is worth it and you do not have to share personal information with *another* company.

Doug

How much do you think you are worth on Internet? Not much, I’m afraid.

This came off FraudArena and is the going rate for your personal information:

$1.50 credit card number, cvv2
$5-$50 stolen medical ID card
$6-$18 basic identity information
$6 British passport number and bank details
$7 hijacked PayPal account with credentials
$14-16 fulls” are a complete set of data identifiers, i.e. name, address social security number, bank account, and mothers maiden name
$30 Passwords and codes to access consumer credit reports
$30-$300 immigration papers with a social security card

Just thought I would pass this along.

Doug

A growing scam involves false tax returns.

Here is how it works:
A scammer files a tax return with a refund specified. Then the scammer goes to one of the tax return advanced loan businesses, presents the return, and gets a loan based on the anticipated refund. Goodbye scammer.

The problem manifests itself when the victim tries to file their tax return. If electronic, the IRS returns a notice that a return has already been filed.

One thing I cannot understand is how a tax return company will gladly create a tax return without physically checking the identity of the person. Maybe now they will.

Doug

Collecting rare coins have always been a fascinating past time. Acquiring bullion coins have been profitable lately, especially gold ones. The rare coin dealer Monaco rare coin, a member of the Professional Numismatic Guild (PNG), has the resources available to navigate the dangerous waters of coin collecting. There are many educational columns where a budding collector can increase knowledge and expertise of the coin field. Try the free trial subscription to the Rare Coin Insider newsletter for up to date information.
What ever your rare coin needs, Monaco Rare Coin should be able to meet your needs.

As with all investments it is wise to consult your financial adviser and do your due diligence.

Spammers have several ways of getting legitimate email addresses - including yours. Some of the common ways are:

1. the error page (invoked when an incorrect aspx or web page is referenced) shows myemail@mydomain dot com
- this can be fixed by putting in a way to automatically send an email (thus hiding) rather than relying on the user to do it.

2. an old copy of the contact us page was found. It had myemail@mydomain.com on it.
- the cached copies of the old program containing myemail@ will eventually disappear.

3. has myemail@mydomain.com been used to register at any websites? If so they could have sold or given away email addresses.

4. Since info@ is very common email address to use for domains the spammer could have guessed that info@ existed. Spammers usually try common email addresses such as info@, test@, etc hoping for a hit.

Read the entire article about how spammers get your email address.

Doug

I tried f-secure healthcheck today to see if my computer was up to snuff. To quote from f-secure:

• checks whether you have an Anti-Virus, Firewall and Anti-Spyware software installed on your computer
• checks whether you have known vulnerabilities in your applications
• checks whether you have applications that are no longer supported by the vendor
• helps you fix the vulnerabilities found.

In my case (Vista), a few programs were found that were out-of-date, which were easily fixed. As we feel at mysecurepc.com you can never be too careful.

And best of all: f-secure scan is free. Let us know your findings.

Doug

Teens want freedom; you want safety. Like oil and water, they do not mix. Read about creating a safe teenager blogging environment. It does not have to be confrontational but is necessary.

Doug

mysecurepc.com has updated its phishing scam page with several new ideas on prevention. Phishing scams through email are growing at an alarming rate. Professional crooks have targeted this area so watch out.

Doug

Sometimes we just have to use a public computer, whether it is in school, the library, coffee shops, airports, or wherever. This does not mean our online safety be jeopardized. Here are 10 tips on using a public computer safely. Bottom line is do not enter anything sensitive on a public computer.