Wednesday, July 06, 2011

Alert: Facebook Support has sent you a message

This morning I received three different messages to three different email addresses I use with the subject Facebook Support has sent you a message.  If you receive these emails you should immediately delete them as they are not from Facebook. Both the link and the Submit button will send you to a site which is not a Facebook site.

In this case two of the three emails ended up at a site Canadian Family Pharmacy with ads promoting Cialis and Viagra. Given the sites are possibly short term disposable sites you shouldn't trust the sites in any case.


My advice is if you ever receive an email to an online service you use such as Facebook, Twitter, bank sites, etc., don't use the link in the email. Go to the site by open your browser enter go to the site like you normally would. That way you reduce the chance of being tricked by phishing attempts. Also there is a potential the link may take you to a malicious site which might end up infecting your computer. Another great reason for not clicking on a link in the emails.

What I thought was interesting with the three emails is the links in each email was for different web site. This just goes to show that in the one spam attempt the spammers are now using multiple sites. If one gets closed down quickly (in this case one site didn't work) they've increased their chances of their spam mail out working.

The tip I really want to get across to people is if you receive an email with a link, even if it is from an organisation you know, don't use the link. Open your browser and go to the site using the site address. Phishing attacks are so clever in how real they look and it is very easy to be tricked into revealing your account details. If you know someone who is perhaps not as good with computers as yourself, pass the tip on to assist them.

Kelvin Eldridge
http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/
http://www.justlocal.com.au/

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