Posts Tagged ‘phishing’

Tech Support Call Scams Becoming More Aggressive

Wednesday, January 13th, 2016

Have you ever gotten an unsolicited call from someone claiming to be a tech support pro who wants to help you with an urgent problem with your computer? Chances are you have. It is estimated that just one type of these many scams have cost U.S. victims $1.5 billion so far in 2015. It is not known how many of these scams are currently active, but with new ones popping up almost every day, I would estimate there are at least hundreds, if not over one thousand, different groups of these crooks launching their own tech support phone scam. (more…)

More Phone Scams For the General Public

Thursday, March 20th, 2014

It seems that right now phone scam season is going strong!  Last week I posted about some common scams targeting businesses. Those same scams are also targeting the general public, so please be on the lookout for them. In addition to those, here are some others that seem to be targeting primarily individuals and the general public. (more…)

Phone Scam Open Season – Business Risks

Friday, March 14th, 2014

It seems that right now phone scam season is going strong!  I got 2 calls last week from scammers. I got another scammer call during a meeting last night. Two of my LinkedIn contacts got calls in the past week that they asked me about. A local newspaper columnist got a call from a scammer. As folks are becoming more aware of phishing attempts via email and other types of malware, they are also becoming more lax about spotting phone scams, often stating the belief that most crooks are using online phishing scams instead of any other type of rip-off. (more…)

Txt Phishing (Vishing) In Iowa: MetaBank NOT Calling!

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

Boy, all throughout the day I heard on the radio, and it was all over the noon and evening news, that Iowa customers of MetaBank were receiving text messages on their phones to call MetaBank about unusual activity in their account…

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How To Create Information Security & Privacy Case Studies

Monday, June 2nd, 2008

Over the years I’ve done a lot of information security, privacy and compliance training and awareness activities; content creation, delivery, tools, and a large variety of other related activities. I’ve found doing case studies to be one of the most effective, and most interesting and popular, type of training activity.
I’ve created dozens, and perhaps even hundreds, of case studies throughout the years. Case studies engage your personnel in thinking in ways that just telling them information cannot do, noticeably change their work habits, and measurably impact their opinions about information security and privacy.
In the third article of the May 2008 issue of my IT Compliance in Realtime Journal, “Creating Effective Case Studies for Information Security and Privacy Training” I provide direction for how to create effective case studies within any type of organization.
The following is an unformatted copy of the article, without the sidebar information and illustrations; download the PDF version of the article to see those…

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Let Your Personnel And Family Know About This Phishing Scheme That Spoofs Amazon

Thursday, May 29th, 2008

When was the last time you warned your family members, friends and/or personnel about the new phishing schemes that are being launched?
There are many phishing scams going on right now, and they are widely reported and talked about. I want to talk about a new one spoofing Amazon, a popularly spoofed company in phishing messages, because I’ve already had a couple of other folks I know who are not in the info sec biz asking me about it today. I also got it in my email box today, so it will make a good example to discuss…

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Twelve Messaging Risks to Address Now

Monday, March 10th, 2008

The first article within the March issue of my new e-journal, “IT Compliance in Realtime” is “Twelve Messaging Risks to Address Now.”
Here are a few excerpts…

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Warnings Of New Phishing Threat Hitting Mainstream

Friday, March 7th, 2008

Recently I blogged about getting a phishing scam message that threatened my life.
I was pleasantly surprised this morning to see the Iowa Attorney General’s office and law enforcement warning the public about this scam here.
The general public should made more aware of information security and privacy concerns, risks and scams to help keep them from falling victims to criminal schemes such as this.
What do you do to make those in your community more aware?

Phisherthieves Like Banks Best

Wednesday, February 13th, 2008

Here’s a pretty good mainstream news story from CNN to give to your business leaders to raise their awareness and understanding about phishing…

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New FTC Spam & Phishing Report

Wednesday, January 9th, 2008

On December 28 the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) made a new report available to the public, “Spam Summit: The Next Generation of Threats and Solutions.”
The report describes the findings from a July 2007 workshop the FTC hosted, and proposes follow-up action steps to mitigate the damages caused by malicious spam and phishing.

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