This and That Technology Tips Phishing for Your Data – Stealing Your Personal Information August 2, 2004 I know it's been a while (do I always start off my newsletters this way? ;-)). I have a great excuse this time – I just moved from Mt. View, CA to Sunnyvale, CA – purchasing my first home – a cute little condo nestled in the corner of a complex near a creek. If you're interested in seeing photos – pre-move in – drop me a line and I'll send you a link. It's been quite an experience!! So, we have a smaller, but very important, newsletter this time around. It involves forged emails and website where folks "fish" for your real financial data, a technique known as "phishing". They masquerade as companies you know and ask you to update your financial data. We talked about it briefly in February. The writers of these emails and designers of fake websites have improved their skills and their emails look quite legitimate. A couple of critical tips: 1. Don't ever go to a website, based on an email you've received and update critical information such as address, SS#, birthdate. 2. It's okay to update if you go to a site (say www.amazon.com), enter user name and pwd, then click on "profile". This is the ONLY way you can safely update info without having info stolen. 3. Make sure there's a little lock in the lower right corner of your screen before updating personal information or buying on-line. If you want to make doubly sure – this is secure, click on link and make sure certificate is current. If there's no lock, don't update info or buy from a vendor who's site is "lockless." Enjoy, Clyde *********************************************** Fake Emails Here's an example email many of my clients are getting. Along with this email usually comes about 3 viruses. Don't ever open attachments on emails like this or follow instructions like this one. Fake email #1 Dear user of itmcomputing.com We have found that your email account was used to send a huge amount of spam messages during the last week. Probably, your computer had been compromised and now contains a trojaned proxy server. We recommend that you follow our instruction in the attached text file in order to keep your computer safe. Have a nice day, The itmcomputing.com support team. *********************************************** Relieve your technology stress with an On-Site/Remote Tune-Up Yes, it's true, we still come to your home or small business and whip your computer, your digital camera, your scanner, your printer, your wired or wireless network into shape. As Ben Franklin used to say, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Let us come do all the preventative measures on this page and train you to keep your computer running in fine form. If you live beyond the SF Bay Area, join the growing number of out-of-state ITM clients who take advantage of our phone, email and remote desktop support. From our offices, we can fix almost any problem you're having. Call us today - 408-246-3707 for your on-site tune-up. *********************************************** Fake email #2 Dear Citibank Customer, We recently noticed one or more attempts to log in to your Citibank account from a foreign IP address and we have reasons to believe that there was attempts to compromise it with brute forcing your PIN number. No successful login was detected and you have full protection by now. If you recently accessed your account while travelling, the unusual login attempts may have been initiated by you. The login attempt was made from: IP address: 173.77.177.24 ISP Host: cache-282.proxyserver.cis.com By now, we used many techniques to verify the accuracy of the information our users provide us when they register on the Site. However, because user verification on the Internet is difficult, Citibank cannot and does not confirm each user's purported identity. Thus, we have established an offline verification system to help you evaluate with whom you are dealing with. The system is called CitiSafe and it's the most secure Citibank wallet so far. If you are the rightful holder of the account, click the link bellow, fill the form and then submit as we will verify your identity and register you to CitiSafe free of charge. This way you are fully protected from fraudulent activity on all the accounts that you have with us. Click to protect yourself from fraudulent activity! To make Citibank.com the most secure site, every user will be registered to CitiSafe. NOTE! If you choose to ignore our request, you leave us no choice but to temporally suspend your account. * Please do not respond to this e-mail, as your reply will not be received. Regards, Citibank Customer Support *********************************************** Need to email me about this newsletter or anything else – please use my updated email address or go to this form: http://www.itmcomputing.com/contact_computer.php *********************************************** More links about Phishing Test your Phishing IQ: http://survey.mailfrontier.com/survey/quiztest.html Anti-Phishing Working Group: http://www.antiphishing.org/ US Gov't Hard at work: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/phishingalrt.htm ************************ Hope you enjoyed the ride.... Clyde Lerner, In The Moment Computing Phone: 408.732.8500 E-mail comments/feedback to: http://www.itmcomputing.com/contact_computer.php This newsletter is a service of In The Moment Computing and is Copyright 2005 Clyde Lerner. All worldwide rights reserved. If forwarding, please forward all of e-mail, not any portion therein. To see past issues of This and That Computer Tips newsletter, please visit the web at: http://www.itmcomputing.com/newsletter.php and click on "Archives." Please note: Unless requested, questions pertaining to this newsletter will be answered in a 3-4 week time frame. If you need a faster response, there will be a small consultation fee of $15 per e-mail response. You will receive a reply within 48 hours. "Complete Computer Help (Networks, New Computer Installs, Software Training) for Individuals and Small Businesses" "Designing your Perfect Website, at an Affordable Cost, in a Timely Manner" Eliminate and Destroy unwanted email: http://spamarrest.com/affl?1337207 Send a greeting card through the Internet so recipient gets card in their postal mailbox: www.sendoutcards.com/7197 - let me walk you through how to send a card - it's easy. ©2004 In The Moment (ITM) Computing. All rights reserved.