TN2 - Revision history

Mwp at 14:32, 12 July 2020

2020-07-12T14:32:34Z

Mwp: /* How Do I Recognise a Scam? */

2019-03-09T04:20:40Z

How Do I Recognise a Scam?

Mwp: /* Thinking About Passwords */

2019-03-08T12:12:29Z

Thinking About Passwords

Mwp: /* Thinking About Passwords */

2019-03-08T12:11:14Z

Thinking About Passwords

Mwp: /* How Do I Recognise a Scam? */

2019-03-08T12:10:13Z

How Do I Recognise a Scam?

Mwp: /* How Do I Recognise a Scam? */

2019-03-08T11:57:30Z

How Do I Recognise a Scam?

Mwp: Created page with "= Email Scams = Beware! There are many [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_email_scams email scams] and they are always evolving. The major reasons that email is attractiv..."

2019-03-08T11:54:00Z

Created page with "= Email Scams = Beware! There are many [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_email_scams email scams] and they are always evolving. The major reasons that email is attractiv..."

New page

= Email Scams =

Beware! There are many [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_email_scams email scams] and they are always evolving. The major reasons that email is attractive to scammers are:
* it is insanely cheap to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email_spam spam] millions or even billions of accounts,
* it is easy to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email_spoofing pretend to be someone else] (although [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMARC this is getting harder]), and
* it is easy to hide your tracks by using burner or subverted email infrastructure.

== How Do I Recognise a Scam? ==

Scams are the same online and offline. The scammer wants to take something valuable from you. Some key tells are:
* demanding money (including virtual currencies),
* creating a sense of urgency or panic,
* asking for or using your personal information (including passwords!), and
* making promises too good to be true.

Note that sophisicated scams try to convince you they know everything about you. They use your email address. They may know a password of your from some other site that has been breached.

== What Should I Do? ==

In most cases, the best thing to do is ignore the email. Your address was probably mass generated by the spammer or bought from a data leak on some other site to whom you gave your address. Don't worry. Your email address is not a secret and there is no security implication to it being public.

Don't try and reply to the scam. The sender's address is probably fake or misappropriated. If you somehow succeed, you are just [https://www.ted.com/talks/james_veitch_this_is_what_happens_when_you_reply_to_spam_email guaranteeing more spam].

== Thinking About Passwords ==
You really don't want a scammer breaking into your email account. For one, they will use your account to hurt others. Worse still, they may use information in your account against you in a targeted attack. These are not nice people. Here's some simple rules:
* Choose hard to guess passwords. Random and long is good.
* Use a different password for each account. You don't want to lose everything becuase some lousy social networking site got breached.

Modern browsers can generate and remember passwords so you don't have to.

@@ Line 19: / Line 19: @@
 == What Should I Do? ==
-In most cases, the best thing to do is ignore the email. Your address was probably mass generated by the spammer or bought from a data leak on some other site to whom you gave your address. Don't worry. Your email address is not a secret and there is no security implication to it being public.
+In most cases, the best thing to do is ignore the email. Your address was probably mass generated by the spammer, or leaked from some other site. Don't worry. Your email address is not a secret and there is no security implication to it being public.
 Don't try and reply to the scam. The sender's address is probably fake or misappropriated. If you somehow succeed, you are just [https://www.ted.com/talks/james_veitch_this_is_what_happens_when_you_reply_to_spam_email guaranteeing more spam].

@@ Line 15: / Line 15: @@
 * making promises too good to be true.
-Note that sophisicated scams try to convince you they know everything about you. They use your email address. They may know a password of your from some other site that has been breached.
+Note that sophisicated scams try to convince you they know everything about you. They use your email address. They may know a password from some other site that has been breached.
 == What Should I Do? ==

@@ Line 28: / Line 28: @@
 The most effective things you can do are:
 * Choose hard to guess passwords. Random and long is good.
 * Use a different password for each account. You don't want to lose everything becuase some lousy social networking site got breached.

@@ Line 24: / Line 24: @@
 == Thinking About Passwords ==
-You really don't want a scammer breaking into your email account. For one, they will use your account to hurt others. Worse still, they may use information in your account against you in a targeted attack. These are not nice people. Here's some simple rules:
+You really don't want a scammer breaking into your email account. For one, they will use your account to hurt others. Worse still, they may use information in your account against you in a targeted attack. These are not nice people.
 * Choose hard to guess passwords. Random and long is good.
 * Use a different password for each account. You don't want to lose everything becuase some lousy social networking site got breached.

@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 * demanding money (including virtual currencies),
 * creating a sense of urgency or panic,
-* attepting to embarress or blackmail you,
+* attempting to embarrass or blackmail you,
 * asking for or using your personal information (including passwords!), and
 * making promises too good to be true.