THE TENNESSEE VALLEY-Scammers are taking advantage of the holiday shopping rush with fake emails that appear to be confirming an order. Watch out for these scams as you wrap up last minute shopping.
How the Scam Works:
You receive an email message that appears to about a recent purchase you made online. The email seems to come from a major retailer — Walmart, The Home Depot and Target were all impersonated — and informs you that your purchase is ready for pick up or has been shipped.
You don’t remember ordering anything from that store, but in the holiday shopping rush it could have slipped your mind. Curious, you click on the link to read the details of your order.
Don’t do it! When you click on the file, you find that it isn’t information about your “order.” It’s really a virus that will download to your computer. Typically, these viruses phish for personal and banking information on your machine.
How to Spot a Scam Email:
Watch for look alike URLs. Be wary of sites that have the brand name as a subdomain of another URL (i.e. “brandname.scamwebsite.com”) or part of a longer URL (i.e. “companynamecustomersupport.com.”)
Hover over URLs in emails to reveal their true destination. Scammers can make links appear to lead to a legitimate website, when they really point to a scam site, like the examples above.
Watch for typos and bad grammar. Scammers can easily copy a brand’s logo and colors. But their poor writing gives the
Brian Krebs of Kerbs On Security
email away as a scam.
Call the store. When in doubt, call the business’s customer support line to check the legitimacy of the email. Be sure to find the phone number on your bill or by typing the company name into your browser directly. Don’t rely on any information contained in the email you suspect is a scam.
Read more and see examples of fake confirmation emails at Krebs on Security, an online security blog run by former Washington Post reporter Brian Krebs.
MEDIA RFELEASE/From the Better Business Bureau
