Phishing is a form of social engineering. Phishing attacks use email or malicious websites to solicit personal information by posing as a trustworthy organization. For example, an attacker may send email seemingly from a reputable credit card company or financial institution that requests account information, often suggesting that there is a problem. When users respond […]

Think twice before you respond to any request for your email address, on the web, verbally, or on paper. Spammers can harvest any email address posted on a website. If you give your email address to a company, that information is often entered into a database so that customer information and preferences can be tracked. […]

Just as it’s impossible to unring a bell, it’s difficult to control sensitive information divulged in emails, as it might be intercepted or surfaced in searches even long after the fact. Don’t share personally identifiable information over email if at all possible. In particular, do not hand it over in response to unsolicited requests from […]

You can more easily manage notifications and offers from online retailers by creating an email address solely for engaging with them. This setup has the added benefit of making it easier for your to spot scam emails, which are often disguised as promotions, that wind up in your primary personal inbox. Ultimate Internet Security from […]

Chances are that when you need technical support, you’ll reach out to the company – not the other way around. The latter situation is common with many scams, though. Someone will call or email you and ask you to take a few (likely compromising) steps, such as revealing your Social Security number or account login […]

Many spammers send HTML mail with a linked graphic file that is then used to track who opens the mail message. When your mail client downloads the graphic from their web server, the spammers know you’ve opened the message. Disabling HTML mail entirely and viewing messages in plain text also prevents this problem.