The latest scheme to target unsuspecting consumers aims right at the core of what matters to the average person on an average night: our entertainment! In a scheme unveiled by Jerome Segura in a blog post on the site Malwarebytes.org, scammers are going after the personal information and financial resources of Netflix users.
Here’s how it works:
You are on what looks like the real Netflix home page. You enter your information, but instead of taking you to Netflix, you are redirected to a page telling you your account has been suspended for “unusual activity”. You are given an 800 number for “Netflix Member Services” and a very authentic looking error code.
If you call this number, a real live human being answers sounding much like a real typical tech support person. They will be happy to help you (even if you give them bogus account information!) if you’ll just give them that error code. This then allows them to remotely access your computer.
SCAM ALERT! There is a Target texting scam going around. The text looks similar to the one in the picture to the left, and generally says you’ve won a $1,000 gift card if you simply click on the link and collect the money. When you click on the link, it takes you to a Target-looking site that a criminal has set up to collect your private information. The information is then used to steal your identity. In other cases, clicking on the link installs a small piece of malware that takes control of your phone and forwards your private information to the criminals.
Where do the criminals get my mobile phone number to text me in the first place?
They purchase it off of black-market sites on the internet
You give your mobile number away to enter contests, vote on reality shows, etc.
According to Cnet.com, security firm Sophos has highlighted yet another scam that’s zipping around Facebook in the form of a third-party application, this one spreading in the form of links claiming to be from friends that encourage members to install a Facebook “dislike button.”
Sophos wrote about the scam in a post on Monday, pointing out that a link to it tends to appear in wall posts that appear to be from the user’s friends (“I just got the Dislike button, so now I can dislike all of your dumb posts lol!!”) but which are actually automated messages from friends who have already been duped. The scam’s purpose is to force users to complete a survey contained in the application, a bit of trickery that has already been known to be perpetuated through scam links like “Justin Bieber trying to flirt” and “Anaconda coughs up a hippo,” the two of which presumably would be enticing to rather different demographics of Facebook users.
The story about the Harvard student who fraudulently gained access into Harvard University is an excellent lesson in repelling fraud. Watching the video to the left, you will be struck by how many opportunities there were to catch him in the act of lying. But it didn’t happen for a long time. The underlying reason he didn’t get caught is the same for prestigious universities like Harvard, Fortune 500 Companies and small businesses alike:
No one verified his claims (until recently). Verification is a learned skill that is under-utilized and under-
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The latest scheme to target unsuspecting consumers aims right at the core of what matters to the average person on an average night: our entertainment! In a scheme unveiled by Jerome Segura in a blog post on the site Malwarebytes.org, scammers are going after the personal information and financial resources of Netflix users.
