Hi all!
It’s been a long time since i wrote an article here.
I’m observing a deep stupidity which sits somwhere behind desks and home computers. Many people are sending and forwarding some idiotic messages which are pretending, that well known and rich companies are giving away a lot of money for just forwarding that message. And all that money for just an e-mail forwarding and several so-called non-relevant information: Your home address, and perhaps a little more.
The sad thing is, that ther are so many information sites, advises which are saying, please verify it before acting, but it seems that many people are unaware, or even not willing to hear them.
This is a greedy method of phishing, using social engineering techniques, since it reaches a large part of the society, and as internet reaches the farthest areas in the world, this part grows every day.
You may ask: what should i do if i got such a message? Just a few steps and you’ll be safer:
1. Check the sender of the message: if you don’t know the sender, just delete the message. It is 99% certain, that the message is spam.
2. If you know the sender: Just think about his/her habits, living conditions, etc. Check the message title. If it contains a Re, Fwd, etc. words, you can be certain, the sender of the message got it from someone else. Verdict: delete the message.
3. If you aren’t certain yet: save the message, and ask the sender, what this message is. If the answer is like “you can get a lot of money if you will forward it “, “i was already contacted”, “i don’t know”, etc. the verdict is the same: delete the message.
Step 1, 2, 3, 4: DON’T FORWARD THE MESSAGE.
WHY?!!
Somehow (I just don’t wish to write how (due to lack of time)) this message will get back to the original sender, with a huge list of e-mail addresses. He will have a lot of useful and REAL e-mail addresses, which can be used for spamming, phishing(collecting sensitive informations, such as bank account authentication data – usernames, passwords, PIN codes, geographical addresses, habits, interests, etc.). By tese means, you can seriously compromise your personal security and financial independence, and you may get a lot of other problems.
