The hackers appreciate your “Black Friday” business
Posted by: melissa in Scams, Phishing Trip
According to ComputerWorld "Black Friday" is one of the most profitable events for hackers trying to steal your holiday cheer and anything else they can get their filthy paws on.
There are usually a handful of "hot" items that everyone is vying for this time of year; be it a Tickle-Me-Elmo or a Wii. Don’t fall victim to that email claiming to have your Holy Grail at an unbelievable price/quantity on a very popular site. Do NOT click on the link! VERIFY the code behind that link to see where it is really trying to take you. The scammers are not only trying to take you to a fake site to steal your info, their fake site may also be installing key stroke monitoring code on your computer to collect what you type in the future.
I’m disturbed by the following excerpt from the ComputerWorld article:
"Online fraudsters have been busy this year. Fraud losses related to U.S. e-commerce will top $3.6 billion in 2007, up 20% from last year, according to a report by the vendor CyberSource this month. The increase in dollar loss is due mostly to growing e-commerce sales, as the percentage of transactions that are fraudulent has held steady.
The run-up to Christmas and tax filing season are the two most dangerous times of the year for online shoppers, Yaneza says.
In addition to being wary of e-mails, be careful when searching for holiday deals or specific products on Google and other search engines. Operators of malicious sites have figured out ways to rise to the top of search listings.
"We’ve seen instances where the top site that is ranked actually gets there by gaming the Google search algorithm," Yaneza says."
$3.6 BILLION, These dirtbags have stolen THREEPOINTSIX BILLION bucks out of your pockets! WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!!!! And, remember, that is only the reported amounts. Many victims are too embarrassed to report their losses.
I don’t know how many different ways we; the people who don the superhero capes to fight these criminals, can say it: DON’T BE FOOLED! Even if you are a regular customer of "Company X" do not click on a link in an email purported to be from Company X without making damn sure that email is real. better yet, open your browser and type the URL you always go to (www.amazon.com) rather than clicking on any link in an email. It only takes a second people, it isn’t going to destroy your day to exercise those fingertips and type rather than clicking on your mouse.
A message from your local superhero; Super Pessimist
Entries (RSS)
November 22nd, 2007 at 1:24 am
I am thoroughly amazed at these numbers! How pathetic is the majority of Americans where we trust emails sent by god knows who, yet we give money to bums on the street stating they’re just trying to “get some gas money.” It’s the gullible’s that make me want to pull my hair out!
Secondly, I noticed how everything evil in the world is blamed on the “Hackers,” and personally I’m sick of the accusation. Hackers in general have nothing to do with it. I am a proud hacker, as well as some other super pessimists I know. We are hackers, because we hack, which in case some of you have forgotten, means to mess around with. In the last couple of decades, it has evolved to mean someone who messes around with computers, or a “computer hacker.” In no way does this mean we partake in phreaking, phishing, scamming, cracking and demolishing others’ personal belongings and reputations…it simply means that we are people that want to know and customize how things work! Think of it this way: The watermelon originally came in 1 major variety…the kind with seeds. It was a “Watermelon Hacker (otherwise known as an organic geneticist) who created the seedless variety.
That’s not to say that the true evildoers aren’t hackers as well. After all, they do manage to mess with a lot of people’s minds and wallets, but I would think a good alternative title for them would be “Douchebags.”
Next time you hear someone use the word HACKER in conjunction with identity theft or fraud, please correct them.
Thanks,
Patrick Duffy - // TRUE Hacker & Geek //
November 28th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Damn “hackers” had to go and remove the seeds! Have you tried entering a watermelon pit spitting contest with one of these “hacked” melons???