BBB gets Complained about Phishing E-mails

BBB (Better Business Bureau) running under New York, US based Upstate recently got numerous phone-calls regarding a malicious e-mail campaign masquerading as BBB and asserting that certain BBB complaint was struck against the recipient. The e-mail, it's warned, represents a scam. They show web-links pointing to sites that install malware onto affected users' PCs, published patch.com in news on June 8, 2013.

It may be noted that a non-profit organization, BBB is widely known as well as respected, as it serves reliability reviews of businesses, free of cost, for enterprises across Canada and USA.

According to BBB officials, the phishing messages, either through a web-link or an attachment, try to dupe receivers of the e-mails in a way that they would click or view, thus enabling a download of malicious program on their PCs. This malicious program actually contaminates the PCs following which it seeks information, in particular, passwords and bank account details so it can filch cash from the victims' A/Cs.

Explaining about fraudulent e-mails, Better Business Bureau's Rockford Regional Office's Director Dennis Horton stated that phishing was an increasing threat virtually daily and consumers required being wary about the fact. Hence, they should never disclose their private information except when they were sure that they weren't getting defrauded, he added. Wifr.com published this during the 1st-week of June 2013.

Disturbingly, worldwide losses due to phishing, during 2012, amounted $1.5bn, reports RSA in its February 2013 Fraud Report. The amount was remarkable and accounted for a 22% rise since 2011. Moreover, phishing attacks in aggregate numbered 59% more compared to that of 2011.

Consequently, BBB offers certain suggestions for keeping oneself safe from phishing. These are: avoiding following web-links and attachments within unsolicited e-mails; perusing the electronic message thoroughly to find signs of fraudulence like grammatical or spelling mistakes, general salutations like "Dear member" rather than addressing by full name; and ensuring one's computer is secure with anti-spyware and anti-virus software running.

BBB also emphasizes that Internauts receiving any fraudulent, spoofed e-mail asserting it has been sent from BBB (similar to one mentioned above) to forward it at phishing@council.bbb.org.

» SPAMfighter News - 6/14/2013