EXAMPLE: Dear customer:
Your e-mail account has exceeded its limit Please verify your account to avoid losing it by "CLICKING HERE" (link in body of email).
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| above is screenshot capture of the actual email |
It's pretty safe to assume that if we are receiving these e-mails, millions of other people are getting them too. We believe these emails are no doubt what's called a "*phishing scam".
Charlotte, North Carolina based Cole WebMarketing, which hosts hundreds of websites, and thousands of e-mail accounts, has always advised our clients, that whenever they receive an e-mail that even remotely appears suspicious, to NEVER click on any link that is contained in the e-mail message.
If, for example, you receive an e-mail that says it's from PayPal, eBay, your bank, your cell phone carrier, etc., and the e-mail warns you of a potentially serious problem and that you need to take immediate action... by clicking on the link provided an e-mail, don't do it!
Instead, go to your browser address window, type in the URL for the website referenced in the e-mail, such as www.PayPal.com, and then log into your account and check to see if there is some type of authentic problem. To be certain that there is in fact nothing to be concerned about, you can always take a second precautionary step of contacting the company the via e-mail or telephone to inquire about the warning you received in the presumably fake e-mail. They will be able to confirm whether or not the e-mailed alert or warning is genuine.
WHEN IN DOUBT, CHECK IT OUT! @ Snopes.com
The website www.Snopes.com is a great resource for checking to see if emails you get are real, fake or partially true or false. The site has a SEARCH BOX on the home page. Usually typing in, or copying & pasting, the subject line of the email you received, or part of the body of the email, will bring up details about the email - is it a scam? does it contain a link to a computer virus? is it true, or false or taken out of context, etc. Snopes.com is also effective to ascertain whether an email "alert or warning" that someone forwarded to you is a false rumor or something true, and something you should know and be concerned about.
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*Phishing scams, according to Wikipedia, are: Phishing is the act of attempting to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details (and sometimes, indirectly, money) by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public. Phishing emails may contain links to websites that are infected with malware.
Phishing often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one.
It is believed that the first recorded use of the term "phishing" was made in 1995. The term is a variant of fishing, alludes to "baits" used in hopes that the potential victim will "bite" by clicking a malicious link or opening a malicious attachment, in which case their financial information and passwords may then be stolen.
