Here we are again with a fake email, but here is the real issue: it is getting to the point where you can’t trust email.

What do I mean?

At one point there was no problem clicking on link…you could go watch that goofy video your friend sent you without any concerns.

No more!

The below email “from” NewEgg.com is a perfect example.

It sure looks “real”.  But that doesn’t take much effort.

If you were to click on any of the body or the top of this email, you’d be taken to one of those sites that runs a fake virus scan.  See my email on fake virus scans or type in this link (http://v1solutions.com/2012/04/fake-virus-scans-continued)

Don’t be surprised to start receiving these fake emails from all the big legitimate folks like Amazon, Dell, HP, etc.  It will happen.

How did I know this email was a fake?

If I have ordered from NewEgg, it has been a long time…so I was immediately suspicious.

The moral of this story is be suspicious.

I’ve noted in the past the fake virus scans that appear out there.  I just discovered another.

This one is a redirect from an article on www.nymag.com.

Below is the screen shot.  Click on it to see the full size details.

Another Scam Anti-Virus

Let me clarify again, these fake scans are doing nothing UNTIL you click the OK button…then you have opened the door and let them in.

Even if you see what appears to be a scan in action, that is generally fake.

So:

1. Stay calm
2. Close your browser if you see this occur.
3. Run a virus scan.
4. Don’t go back to that site.

This is a good time to remind you to ensure your anti-virus is always up to date.

Also, we’ve recently had a change in the anti-virus we recommend.

AVG does still provide a free anti-virus which is good.

But we now prefer to pay for ESET, it is much better.

The more of an online presence you have, the greater risk you run in getting tricked (Phished) out of your log in information.

Refresher:
Phishing is the act of faking you out in order to gain information from you.  This usually occurs by sending you an email that looks official, and asks you for your log in credentials for an online account.

So, let’s take a look at the risk pool:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Online banking
• E-filing your taxes
• Forums
• Deliveries
• etc.

Take a look at this example of a Twitter phishing email:

So you receive this and think, “what the heck are they saying about me?”
Then you click this link.

It takes you here:

At first glance it looks real, but notice that web address is TVVITTERI.com.

Two “V”‘s instead of a “W”.

Within 15 minutes your account will be hijacked and it will be sending out spam like this:

Next comes the embarrassing follow up:

The point to this is: be careful.  Never log into any of your accounts from any link emailed to you.

“Manually” go to your website and log in.

Yes, it is that time of year again…that time of year where you can expect many deliveries from FedEx, UPS, the Post Office and possibly others.

A scam email that picks up steam this time of year is an email that plays upon this delivery expectation.

Here is how the scam works:

• You receive an email that says you missed a delivery
• Part of this email is an attachment that is your “tracking number” or “notification”
• In the excitement you click that attachment and…BLAMMO! you are not infected.

Realize this: the delivery companies do not send you attachements.

The tracking number will be plain text in the email.
If it is not plain text, go to Google and type in the tracking number.
Google will then direct you to the correct tracking website.

Here is an example of one of these fake emails:

It’s that time again, time for AVG to push out a major update to their anti-virus package.

To reduce confusion I have taken some screen shots to help walk y0u through this process.

Be aware: there is an addition to this version of AVG that will completely eliminate your browser history upon installation.

For those of you that do not open multiple browser tabs during your web browsing experience, while not saving the sites at bookmarks, this is not an issue.

Start by clicking the Free Update button.

If you are using the Free version of AVG, and want to continue this way, click Basic Protection on the screen.
If you want to upgrade to the paid version, click Full Protection below.

Finalize by filling in this last screen to your desire, the click Restart Now.