Archives - Phishing


Double-check any new and unfamiliar website for phishing signs

Visiting a website for the first time, perhaps via an email link? Look for the tell-tale signs of phishing. These include misspellings and grammatical mistakes on the page, aggressive advertising and especially unusual and complex URLs. If you see some or all of them, leave the page immediately.

Watch out for fake coupons in emails

Many phishing scams involve the phisher posing as a major retailer and then sending emails claiming to contain coupons that you redeem by clicking them in an email. To stay safe, never click on one of these offers if it seems to good to be true, comes from a long/garbled email address or is contained in a […]

Be careful with URL typos

URL typos aren’t always harmless – the slightly misspelled website might actually be a registered domain that could put your device in harm’s way. The risk has grown as the number of top-level domains has increased; instead of just .com or .org, now there’s also .xyz, .capital and many more. Double-check any URL you type […]

Be careful with shortened links

Vanity link shorteners such as bit.ly and goo.gl were once popular as a space-saving techniques on platforms like Twitter. They carry risks, though, since you cannot immediately see where they lead. Truncated URLs have been used in several scams. For example, a goo.gl address was central to a phishing campaign that pointed victims to a […]

Improved cybersecurity a 2019 resolution you can actually keep

Did you make a New Year’s resolution or 2019? While many people set ambitious goals each January – from losing weight to reading more books – most don’t even come close to reaching them. According to U.S. News, 80 percent of people have abandoned their resolutions by the second week of February. The reasons for […]

Shore up your defenses with security software

Alertness can go a long way in staving off phishing, even of the most sophisticated variety. At the same time, it’s recommended you have reliable security software in place to continuously protect your system against the latest threats. Try Ultimate Internet Security from Total Defense to get started.