E-mail scams and phishing attempts evolve constantly, hoping to take advantage of the latest trends and current events. Although the e-mails change, the people behind them inadvertently send up the same warning signs again and again. SWITCHED dug through mountains of spam to find the most prevailing trends. Here are some warning signs to help you spot a hustle the next time one lands in your inbox.
1. Requests for personal information
No legitimate organization will ask for your social security, bank account or PIN number via e-mail – and none will include a link, sending you to a form to enter it.
2. Watch for typos or spelling mistakes
Scam artists are street smart, but many flunked basic grammar (or barely speak English).
3. Clickable Web links in e-mails
What might look like a legitimate address is often linked to a third-party site that looks official, but is actually run by thieves and scammers.
4. ‘Market research’ or surveys that ask you for personal information.
You’ll be asked to fill out a survey or enter a contest – requiring you to give personal information or “log on” to your account. Once you’ve done so, the scammers can use it themselves.
5. Stock tips from random people or companies
It’s probably a “pump and dump” scheme. The sender already owns shares – and when you and others act on the “tip,” the stock price soars and he sells fast – leaving you with virtually worthless shares.
6. Attachments in e-mails from anyone you don’t know
It’s almost always a virus or spyware meant to steal your personal information
7. Wordless e-mails
Some legitimate looking “e-mails” are actually just images. The danger with these is that clicking anywhere in the body takes you to a suspect Web site – where you may be fooled into entering personal information, or the scammer may slip spyware onto your machine.
8. Outdated information
Some scammers like to pose as technical- or customer support from a company you associate with – but fail to keep up with current events.
9. Red-flag phrases
If you see the phrases “verify your account,” “you have won the lottery” or “if you don’t respond within XX hours, your account will be closed,” it’s a scam – every time.
10. Generic greetings
While you can’t trust every e-mail that knows your name, you can definitely ignore the ones that start “Dear member” or “Hello friend.”
Social media occupies so much of our everyday lives why not acknowledge them this Halloween? Here are some great ideas!
1- Balloon Boy
It’s a cool way to get your hoax on this Halloween season a la Falcon Heene, the little boy that caused Twitter and its trending topics to go into overdrive for 2 full days (October 15-16).
2- Facebook
Take a cardboard poster, add your Facebook profile and you not only have a quick and easy costume, you might pick up an extra Facebook friend or two when you’re out trick and treating!
3- Ted.me
Dress up like Ted.me. I don’t know if his ‘personal’ brand is widely known outside of social media circles, but Ted Murphy consistently dons this same attire every time he appears or speaks at social media gathering such as SXSW.
4- The Socially-Connected, Plugged-In Couple
Here are two costumes that both you and your significant-other can wear to show off your social-connectivity.
5- Ashton Kutcher, King of All Social Media
If you want to show up this Halloween as a Kutcher impostor, all you have to do is obtain a crown from Burger King, slap on a printed Kutcher photo and your in business.
6- Social Bookmarking (See photo above)
Digg, Technorati, StumbleUpon, etc are services that allow us to bookmark a lot of what we read and digest today. This sandwich board not only gives them a nod, it actually adds a Halloween treatment to each one of their logos.
7- “Show Us Your Tweets”
A little racy, but doable.
8- Pete Cashmore Pumpkin Head
Pete Cashmore of Mashable was photographed wearing this pumpkin head last year. It’s one of the easiest Social Media Halloween costumes to assemble since it only requires a cut-out pumpkin head and a Pete Cashmore name badge - and voila, you are now the instant founder of one of the top Social Media Blogs in the world.
9- Miley “I Quit Twitter” Cyrus
For all you Miley Cyrus teens out there who sympathize with Hannah Montana’s dilemma of “I’m getting too much attention, so I have to exit Twitter,” you can easily sport some look-alike garb to show you are a fan and possibly an ex-Twitterer yourself!
10- Fail Whale
For anyone who has spent anytime on Twitter, you know how many times you might experience down-time with your buddy, the Fail Whale. This one would take a lot of material to construct, but if you start now, I’m sure you’ll be able meet the Halloween October 31st deadline.
1. You
2. Bloggers
3. Celebrities Using Twitter
4. Fred Figglehorn
5. Perez Hilton
6. Soulja Boy
7. Chris Crocker
8. brokeNCYDE
9. Rick Astley
10. Tila Tequila
According to Spike.com
1. Yahoo Loses Facebook
2. Real Networks Punts on the iPod
3. Sony and Toshiba Agree to Disagree Over HD
4. Digital Research: The Other Microsoft
5. Xerox Goes in an Alto Direction
6. Recording Industry Plays the Same Old Tune
7. Compuserve Blows Its Chance to Dominate the Net
8. Newspapers Fail to Read the Writing on the Wall–Craigslist
9. The Google Before Google
10. Microsoft Saves a Rotting Apple
According to PCWorld.com
1.Michael Arrington - Blogger/publisher, TechCrunch.com
2.Steve Ballmer – CEO, Microsoft Inc
3.Jeff Bezos – Chairman and CEO, Amazon.com
4.Sergey Brin – President and Co-Founder, Larry Page – Co-Founder, and Eric Schmidt – Chairman and CEO, Google Inc
5.Dries Buytaert – Founder and Lead, Drupal.org
6.Pete Cashmore - founder, Mashable.com
7.Jean-Francois Clavier - Founder and Managing Partner, Softtechvc.com
8.Bram Cohen - Cofounder, BitTorrent Protocol
9.Drew Curtis - Founder, Fark.com
10.Nick Denton - Founder, Gawker Media
According to laptoplogic.com
According to URLesque…
Expand the Ability to Direct Message Anyone on the SiteAccording to LouisGray.com…
According to PC World…
According to PC World…
1. What should be avoided in all of them is any hint of racist, sexist or religious bias, or any suggestion of nasty, snide, sarcastic, or condescending tone — “snark.”
2. If something could easily fit in a satirical Web site for young adults, it probably shouldn’t go into the news pages of nytimes.com.
3. Contractions, colloquialisms and even slang are, generally speaking, more allowable in blogs than in print.
4. Obscenity and vulgarity are not.
5. Unverified assertions of fact, blind pejorative quotes, and other lapses in journalistic standards don’t ever belong in blogs.
6. Writers and editors of blogs must also distinguish between personal tone and voice and unqualified personal opinion.
7. A blog or news column has to give readers the arguments and factual information that led to the writer’s conclusion — enough argument and fact on both or all sides of the issue to enable the reader to decide whether to agree or disagree
8. That does not apply to editorials or Op-Ed columns, which “are not intended to give a balanced look at both sides of a debate,” as the Readers’ Guide says.
9. Headlines on analysis should try to capture the debate rather than taking sides in it.
10. If the comments contain vulgarity, obscenity, offensive personal attacks, say that somebody “sucks,” or are incoherent, moderators are advised just to chuck them out.
According to internal memo by New York Times standards editor Craig Whitney, summarized by Nicholas Carlson, Business Insider.
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