Amazon Account Email Scam

With 97% of all cyber incidents relying on tricking people into responding to phishing emails, more than ever you need to think before you click.

One of the latest scams going around:

"Bad guys are targeting Amazon customers, urgently claiming you need to update your information within twenty-four hours or your account will be permanently disabled. They count on you getting worried and quickly act without thinking it through.

The email has several red flags like typos and bad grammar, but even if the emails are perfect—which they often are these days—it is a bad idea to click on the link in the email. Always, you should go directly to Amazon using your web browser and see if your account has any notifications. Think Before You Click."

Source quote: https://blog.knowbe4.com/amazon-phishing-scam-in-progress

Tips for Checking if an email is legitimate:

1. Double-check the source of the email, does the “From” Address align with where the email really came from. In some scams, the name won’t be correct for the “From” email address.

2. Hover your cursor above links to check their domain name. do the links go directly to www.amazon.com or does it go somewhere else such as www.amazon.tricksters.com for example? In this example, the word “amazon” is a subdomain for www.tricksters.com.

3. Look for typos and poor grammar.

4. Be wary of supplier details in .zip files or changed banking details.

5. Look for generalisations on addressing the reader. Has the sender addressed you personally or generalised who they are sending the email too?

Remember you are often the last line of defense for your home computer or business including your customers, friends or family.

You can find more information at the following website in regards to phishing emails and how to stay safe online via the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) Website here: https://www.cyber.gov.au/threats/email-scams

How to Stay Safe While Being Social

Hello,

Whether it's children accidentally straying into the dark parts of the internet or adults willingly giving away their information online, this month is all about staying safe online.

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How to Stay Safe While Being Social

People happily share their private information online, building robust libraries that can easily become a one-stop goldmine for fraudsters.

It’s not exactly the intention everyone has when they sign up, as the whole point of Facebook is to share your life with your friends. It hooks us into a global community and the experience does depend on us making certain privacy sacrifices. 

So how do you balance being social with staying safe?
 

People happily share their private information online, building robust libraries that can easily become a one-stop goldmine for fraudsters.
 
It’s not exactly the intention everyone has when they sign up, as the whole point of Facebook is to share your life with your friends. It hooks us into a global community and the experience does depend on us making certain privacy sacrifices.
 
So how do you balance being social with staying safe?
 
On Facebook alone, the average person shares 13 pieces of personal information ranging from a fairly innocent name/email combo, all the way to mothers maiden name and home address.
 
It doesn’t sound like a lot, but those 13 pieces have the power to unravel your life within minutes.
 
Even checking in at home has become the norm, helping to create a multi-dimensional online identity. The details are available to anyone who cares to look, whether they’re a friend keeping in the loop, or a someone with a much darker agenda.
 
The problem is, you just don’t know who’s looking at your profile or why.
 
For example, someone could try accessing your email account by clicking the ‘Forgot password’ link. The email service follows its security rules and asks identifying questions like ‘which high school did you go to? What is your pet’s name?’ Unfortunately, the most common identifying checks and answers are probably available on Facebook.
 
Once your email address is has been breached, hackers can use that to break into other services and go through, clicking ‘Reset Password’ on site after site, account after account – they have full access to your email, so there’s nothing stopping them from emptying your bank accounts – or worse.

7 Ways To Secure Your Facebook Without Missing Out on the Fun 

• Begin by previewing your profile as others see it
• Review what should and should not be visible to strangers
• Consider only sharing partial details, like birth day and month, but not the year
• Only ever ‘Friend’ people you know and trust
• Be wary of duplicate or ‘odd’ friend activity – hackers will often clone or hack a friend’s profile and initiate an urgent and uncharacteristic request for money
• Update your past privacy settings too
• Set default future sharing to ‘friends only’