Top 10 Scams for 2014

Top 10 Scams for 2014

It can say with near certainty that, despite the best efforts of law enforcement and the software security industry, the growth of Internet usage will drive the number of scams ever higher.  Though there will likely not be any significant change in the components of the Top 10 Scams for 2013 chart, there may be some repositioning and changes of emphasis.

Here's the 2014 forecast:

1. Phishing and ID theft. The bad news is that the gap between this and other scams will widen, with newly digitized medical databases as well as corporate systems being key hacking targets, alongside continuing growth of social networking scams.

2. Lottery and sweepstakes, probably no change here either. Seniors, often the most difficult to educate about this crime, are the prime target.

3. Malware - this crime will grow in 2014, moving up a place in the chart because of the increased use of smartphones and tablets. Security specialists suggest that half of all Android mobile devices have no security installed. This is such a threat it could even dislodge lotteries from the Number 2 slot.

4. Bogus Internet sites and fraudulent online sales - don't expect to see any drop-off in this crime. It has however moved down in the chart because of the growing malware category.

5. Hit-and-run scams. This category moves up a slot too because of the sudden surge seen towards the end of 2013 in bogus IRS and utility company payment demands. Also, as more people wise up to the risks of wiring cash, crooks have switched to demanding their money on prepaid debit cards, giving themselves some extra cash-gathering time before awareness of this new trick spreads. As always, this category can also be affected by any major natural disaster, which drives up charity scams.

6. Grandparent/imposter scams. It's the simplicity of this one that makes it such a big earner for the crooks. Although phone calls remain a popular technique, crooks are switching to spamming millions of people using email address lists harvested from circulating messages, like jokes and pass-it-on requests. Delete those address lists before you forward!

7. Economy-related scams. Expect to see a surge in reverse mortgage scams when older homeowners try to unlock some of the equity in their property as prices start to recover. Also, the trend towards self-employment, a big feature of the past few years, could spark a new round of work-from-home scams.

8. Advance fee scams. Scammers never seem to run out of ideas for new ways of fooling people into sending them "overpayment" refunds or paying upfront for dubious services. There's no reason to think they'll run out of crooked inspiration in 2014.

9. Investment scams. There seems to be little prospect of better interest rates for savers either, so they'll continue to hunt for higher returns -- especially in precious metals and currency speculation. You can also anticipate a surge in crowd-funding investment scams as crowd-funding becomes a more popular way to raise money for small businesses, causes and creative projects, especially with recent changes in equity crowd-funding laws. Towards the end of 2013, also noted was a new surge in "pump-and-dump" schemes, in which victims are fooled or pressured into buying worthless stock, pushing up prices and enabling the scammers to sell their holdings before the price falls again.

10. Dating and sweetheart scams. This is a contender for moving up a place in the charts but it stays here for now. The driver is the growth in dating site usage by older age groups, including those whose judgment may not be as sound as it used to be. Also seen is a growth in bogus dating sites as well as crooked "sweethearts."

Not a pretty picture is it? Not just this item but our entire Top 10 chart.  As always, though, there are plenty of actions you can take to increase your security and reduce your vulnerability to those top scams -- starting with commonsense, skepticism and regular reading of Scambusters!

Based on article in scambusters.org, issue #575

SOME WAYS TO AVOID MISTAKES DURING PROJECT MANAGEMENT

SOME WAYS TO AVOID MISTAKES DURING PROJECT MANAGEMENT

You may have heard the saying ”Be proactive, not reactive.”  This is very appropriate when considering how best to deal with mistakes.  The idea being to prevent mistakes before they occur. But how exactly do you do that?  Here are a few ways in which to prevent mistakes during project development.

1. Learn from other’s mistakes. Find experienced peers who are willing to share their experiences, and mistakes, and learn from them.

2. Do your research first.  No matter how much you know, you will encounter new challenges on almost a daily basis. Each challenge usually requires you to learn something new. Before you tackle a problem or task, do your homework!  The trial and error way of learning is way to costly and time consuming. Today, with the resources of the Internet, there is little excuse for not doing proper research in advance.

3. Have a plan.   You can not know how to get to your destination without a road map.  A project plan is the road map for a development project – you need to know how you are going to get where you are going.  Days or weeks can be lost if you go down the wrong path. When done the right way, a project plan will keep one fron straying off course.

4. Follow standards and use templates.  There is a good reason why experienced professionals took the time to create and publish industry and company standards. Standards detail best practices and procedures learned over the years from trial and error. Templates such as professional forms can be useful since most of the work has already been done in a standard format.

5. Communicate and coordinate with others. If you are part of a team it is essential to communicate with other team members in order to avoid redundancies and to coordinate your work with the others. There are any number of methods to facilitate team communication, none of which are perfect and all of which are time consuming. However, communication is a critical part of the development process.

These are but a few ways in which to be proactive with the development of your project. These tips, if applied properly, will definitely help to prevent mistakes that could otherwise occur during your project development.

Good luck with your project!

HAS YOUR EMAIL BEEN HACKED? WHAT TO DO!

More and more these days, we're hearing reports about hacked email accounts -- in which individuals' accounts are hijacked by crooks and used to spam their victims' contacts. An email goes out to your contacts seemingly from you often containing a link that leads either to a sales site or, worse, a malware download. Or they may be one of those spoof distress emails claiming the supposed sender is in trouble and needs money.

So how can you tell if your email account has been hacked and what can you do about it? The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has recently issued guidance, which has been posted on the government's OnGuardOnline website.

How to Tell If You've Been Hacked

Usually, the first clue you get that someone is using your email address is when you get emails from your contacts about messages they say they've received from you and which you know for sure you didn't send. You might also check your "Sent" folder if you use an online email account and see messages there that you didn't send. Similarly, you may find your Facebook or other social network account has posts that you didn't write. You may not even be able to sign in to your social media or email accounts.

It's also possible, says the FTC, that people may be receiving emails that seem to come from you when your account hasn't been hacked at all. In that case, the crooks are spoofing your email address -- using their tech skills to "overlay" their real address with yours. But even then, you'll still want to take action to put things right.

How Did You Get Hacked?

There are several ways crooks can get hold of your email account info but the simplest way is that you gave it to them. They already know your email address. It'll be on hundreds or thousands of messages you sent out (including those on jokes you circulated or someone sent to you) or on other sites where you have accounts.

In fact, it's not hard to guess your address if, like most people, you use your first and last name followed by the mail service provider -- like JohnDoe@somemailservice.com. Now, all they have to do is guess your password, which, depending on how wary you are, could take just seconds. Or they may get hold of it from company computers where you have an account, which they have previously also hacked. If you use the same password on multiple accounts, you're in big trouble.

Alternatively, you may have inadvertently installed malware on your PC, perhaps from the very same trick that's now being passed on to your contacts -- you clicked on a link you thought was sent to you by someone you know. The malware then goes through your PC, collects your password details, raids your contacts list and begins the whole process again.

What to Do If You've Been Hacked

You should take five key actions if you believe your email account has been hacked:

> First, check for and get rid of any malware on your PC. Update and run your internet security software for this. If nothing is found, visit the software company's website or search the Internet for more malware-scanning tools from reputable companies.

If you haven't found any malware, download the free scanner form Malwarebytes. Although this is NOT a substitute for full-blown Internet security (as the company will tell you), it does have a good reputation for tracking down and removing installed malware that other tools miss.

> Second, change you passwords. Again, check out our earlier reports on how to create strong passwords. And follow the two golden rules: Don't use the same password for different sites, and change all of your passwords regularly. Use a password manager.

> Third, check with your email provider or social networking site for guidance on restoring or resetting your account. You may find, for example, that the crooks have already changed your password and you can't log on to your own account. You'll find links from most of the big providers on StaySafeOnline.org's Hacked Accounts page.

> Next, check your account settings. Says the FTC: "Once you're back in your account, make sure your signature and 'away' message don't contain unfamiliar links, and that messages aren't being forwarded to someone else's address. On your social networking service, look for changes to the account since you last logged in -- say, a new 'friend'."

> Finally, make sure you tell all your contacts about what has happened, as soon as possible. If you email them, use the "bcc" address field so all their details remain hidden to the others.

How to Avoid Being Hacked

It would be better, of course, if you didn't get hacked in the first place.

You can reduce the risks by following our password guidance and keeping your passwords secret; using a difficult to identify address or at least adding numbers to your address name and keeping your security software up to date.

For more information on this FTC guidance, visit OnGuardOnline's Hacked Email page.

Based on article from Scambusters.org 9/13/13.

TIPS for Keeping Your Information and System Secure

Keep a Clean Machine.

> Keep security software current: Having the latest security software, web browser, and operating system are the best defenses against viruses, malware, and other online threats.

> Automate software updates: Many software programs will automatically connect and update to defend against known risks. Turn on automatic updates if that’s an available option..

> Protect all devices that connect to the Internet: Along with computers, smart phones, gaming systems, and other web‐enabled devices also need protection from viruses and malware.

> Plug & scan: “USBs” and other external devices can be infected by viruses and malware. Use your security software to scan them.

Protect Your Personal Information.

> Secure your accounts: Ask for protection beyond passwords. Many account providers now offer additional ways for you verify who you are before you conduct business on that site.

> Make passwords long and strong: Combine capital and lowercase letters with numbers and symbols to create a more secure password.

> Unique account, unique password: Separate passwords for every account helps to thwart cybercriminals.

> Write it down and keep it safe: Everyone can forget a password. Keep a list that’s stored in a safe, secure place away from your computer.

> Own your online presence: When available, set the privacy and security settings on websites to your comfort level for information sharing. It’s ok to limit how and with whom you share information.

Connect with Care.

> When in doubt, throw it out: Links in email, tweets, posts, and online advertising are often the way cybercriminals compromise your computer. If it looks suspicious, even if you know the source, it’s best to delete or if appropriate, mark as junk email.

> Get savvy about Wi‐Fi hotspots: Limit the type of business you conduct and adjust the security settings on your device to limit who can access your machine.

> Protect your $$: When banking and shopping, check to be sure the sites is security enabled. Look for web addresses with “https://” or “shttp://”, which means the site takes extra measures to help secure your information. “Http://” is not secure.

Be Web Wise.

> Stay current. Keep pace with new ways to stay safe online. Check trusted websites for the latest information, and share with friends, family, and colleagues and encourage them to be web wise.

> Think before you act: Be wary of communications that implores you to act immediately, offers something that sounds too good to be true, or asks for personal information.

> Back it up: Protect your valuable work, music, photos, and other digital information by making an electronic copy and storing it safely.

Be a Good Online Citizen.

> Safer for me more secure for all: What you do online has the potential to affect everyone – at home, at work and around the world. Practicing good online habits benefits the global digital community.

> Post only about others as you have them post about you.

> Help the authorities fight cybercrime: Report stolen finances or identities and other cybercrime to

http://www.ic3.gov (Internet Crime Complaint Center), the Federal Trade Commission at

http://www.onguardonline.gov/file‐complaint.

Visit http://www.stopthinkconnect.org for more information.

LET US NEVER FORGET 9-11

Let us never forget! 

Twelve years ago the United States was attacked by a band of radical Islamists. Thousands of innocent people died as a result of this viscous attack. To this day, the world has not been the same. Over the past twelve years, these animals have threatened and attacked people in many other countries. People all over the world will continue to live in fear until these radical, so-called religious fanatics are eliminated.

LAPTOPS VS TABLETS

Ever since the emergence of the iPad, the question has been asked: laptop or tablet? Is a laptop necessary when tablets can perform so many of the same functions? Are we heading to or living in the post-PC era?  The answer is, it depends. Everyone uses technology a bit differently, and some can likely get by with a tablet alone. But don't assume that the days of the laptop are numbered. While some can make do with a tablet, there are some compromises required for the tablet-only lifestyle that some users can't make. Here are a few of the best features of both to help you figure out which device is right for you.

Laptops, like desktop PCs before them, have a built-in benefit over tablets, and that benefit is power. As a rule, laptops have more powerful processing hardware, allowing for a wider range of uses, faster performance and better multitasking. Laptops can easily handle common tablet uses—like Web browsing and media streaming—and then go much further, with uses ranging from simple data entry to complex tasks like photo and video editing.   Serious PC gaming relyies on faster processors and discrete graphics processing to crank out complex rendered environments at resolutions and frame rates that tablets can't touch.

Joining the processing hardware is storage. Where tablets may boast anywhere from 16 to 128GB of storage space, the average laptop offers 500GB or more. Even the slimmest laptops featuring smaller SSDs—like the Apple MacBook Air 11-inch—offer at least 128GB, starting where tablets top out. Add in features like optical drives for DVD or Blu-ray discs, card slots for full-size SD cards, and USB-connected flash drives and portable drives, and you can have mountains of data at your fingertips.

There's also the question of form factor. Laptops have the benefit of having a keyboard and mouse built-in, allowing you to do all of the typing and mouse-related work you would do on a desktop. Touch screens don't offer the same level of granular control that a mouse and cursor does, while on screen keyboards are really only fit for entering short bursts of text, such as a status update or a tweet. A physical keyboard is a must for entering long blocks of text, and a mouse is far more efficient than a touch-screen for frequent swapping of windows, clicking of links, and general mousing around. This is even more important in the workplace, where those very tasks may make up the bulk of your day.

There's also the question of ports and peripherals. While both laptops and tablets have an ecosystem of accessories and devices around them, laptops—with their broadly compatible USB ports, HDMI outputs, and other features—work with a universe of accessories that don't need to be tailored to a specific device, but will work with most any properly equipped PC. From mice and keyboards to webcams and storage devices, laptops are the easy choice.

Bottom line: If you need to do serious work, need powerful processing or multitasking, or need compatibility with a specific accessory or storage device, there's no good alternative to the laptop. Tablets can fulfill some of these needs some of the time, but when it's time to get things done, the laptop still reigns.

Tablets on the other hand, considering that most laptops start at $500 and go up from there, tablets are, with few exceptions, more affordable. The Apple iPad (4th Generation, Wi-Fi) might start at $500, but there are dozens of competitors like the Google Nexus 7 and the Amazon Kindle Fire HD (7", Wi-Fi) that cut that price in half, making tablets one of the most affordable options around when it comes to media, games and the Web. The exception to this pricing is the Windows tablet, which attempts to merge the PC operating system with the form-factor and touch screen of a tablet. Where tablets running on Android and iOS can be had for less than $300, the latest Windows 8 tablets start at $400 and many sell for over $1,000. Whether or not the tablet market will support laptop pricing is a question that's largely unanswered, but if price is a consideration, you may want to steer clear of Windows tablets.

The design of the modern tablet—all touch screen—is also extremely intuitive, especially when paired with touch-friendly operating systems, be it Windows 8, Android, or iOS. The icon-heavy designs are very easy for tech-newcomers to figure out, and gestures like swiping from one screen to the next are far easier to grasp than tapping Windows keys or navigating a file tree. Many tablets support some level of multitasking, allowing you to run one or more apps in the background while working in another, but the full-screen focus of most tablets is also seen as a distraction-free alternative to the multitasking of Windows.

The small size of tablets also make them more mobile. While laptops maybe be portable, easily packed along in a laptop bag, tablets are truly mobile, tailored for use while in motion instead of sitting stationary. The smaller form factor also makes it more comfortable to use the device casually. A tablet can be used at the library, but also on the subway, in the kitchen, on the couch, in bed, and everywhere in between. The small screens are also well-suited to personal media consumption, whether it's watching shows and movies or reading an ebook or website.

Tablets also offer excellent battery life. This efficiency is the flipside of the processing issue--smaller, less powerful mobile processors are also more battery efficient, sipping at a battery for hours longer than even a long-lived laptop.

Where laptop PCs deal in software, tablets are all about apps, providing a user experience tailored to the use of a touch screen, and blending always-on data connectivity with the unique capabilities of a mobile device, taking advantage of touch input, motion sensors, GPS data, and built-in cameras. Apps are also generally less expensive than PC software, with a large selection available completely free.

While laptops offer all sorts of options for file support and available programs, the process of buying and consuming digital media is often simpler on a tablet than anywhere else. Broadcasters and movie studios are bending over backwards with apps and services that put their content into the hands of iOS and Android users, and digital distribution through iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play have supplanted many of the traditional outlets as the go to source for media.  If your daily computer use revolves around the internet and social media, streaming services like Spotify and Netflix, and only light productivity, then you may be able to make do with a tablet alone.

Hybrids are being looked by some manufacturers as the best of both worlds. Intel has spent a lot of money promoting an array of two-in-one devices, with small laptops with detachable tablets, like the HP Envy X2 (11-g012nr) around $740 or the Lenovo ThinkPad Helix around $1,560, and convertible designs that flip and fold between the two, like the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11S $999 or the Dell XPS 12 $1,100. These laptop/tablet hybrids are made to close the gap between laptop capabilities and tablet convenience, and the new hybrid category will only get better over time as technologies improve and designs are refined. 

And yes, maybe we All Just Get Along! Though there are clear reasons to favor one device over the other for certain specific uses, the laptop versus tablet debate is a false one. In today's connected world, there isn't really an either-or decision to be made—laptops and tablets may be best used together, as companion devices.

The ideal setup will vary from one person to the next, but many shoppers who make the decision to forgo a laptop or skip the whole tablet thing find themselves butting up against the simple reality that there is no one device that is best for everything. Tablets and laptops are really designed to be companion devices, sharing files via cloud storage and allowing you to take your Web-connected life everywhere.

Adapted from Brian Westover’s PC-Mag article, 8/22/13

Scam Words Crooks Use to Trick You

One of the biggest challenges cyber crooks face -- not that we have any sympathy for them! -- is coming up with words that'll most likely convince you to click on their troublesome links or attachments. But there's a catch. Security software that most of us have on our PCs is set up to look for suspicious words, so the crooks need to use words that will evade this first line of defense.

One of the main tricks they use is to create fake shipping notifications, especially if they're targeting businesses.  Experience suggests we're more likely to click on these than anything else.  More than a quarter of all words featured in malicious emails monitored by one security firm, FireEye, concerned shipments or postage.  FireEye actually compiled a table of those words;  they include the names of all the big shippers and mail organizations because, when we see those names, we're inclined to trust them. FireEye's Top 10 shipping scam words is as follows:

1. dhl

2. notification

3. delivery

4. express

5. (the date year)

6. label

7. shipment

8. ups

9. international

10. parcel

Also in the full charts are words like "alert," "urgent," "confirmation" and "usps."  Many of these shipping-related messages are used for spear phishing -- emails targeted at specific individuals.

When the messages have attachments, the most common form -- shown in the letters after the dot in the attachment name -- is ".zip," a compressed file that is difficult to inspect without opening it.  This accounts for three quarters of attachments in what FireEye calls "advanced malicious attacks." In second place is ".pdf" -- commonly used for documents readable on most PCs with the right software.

"Cybercriminals continue to evolve and refine their attack tactics to evade detection and use techniques that work. Spear phishing emails are on the rise because they work," says Ashar Aziz, founder and CEO, FireEye.

After shipping terms, the next most common word category used by cyber criminals is finance.  They often use the name of a bank, refer to transactions and have official-looking forms attached. Tax-related words are also popular, especially when they include "refund"!

Attachments named for things like airline tickets or invoices are another common feature of spear phishing.  The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) says spear phishing emails are particularly effective because cybercriminals use information from social networking sites to personalize emails and make them look more authentic.  However, there are lots of other giveaways in scammers' choice of words that you can be on the lookout for.

As frequently reported, bogus messages from Nigeria or other countries where English is not the first language often give themselves away just by the use of wrong words and grammar.

Sometimes, they use quaint words and phrases no longer in use, seem over-polite or tell you they're "temporarily out of the country," or similar wording.  On dating sites, crooks also over-use abbreviations, some of them seemingly obscure even to seasoned surfers, and other just repeated too often -- like "cos."

More Scam Words Categories

Here are six word categories that suggest you could be on the receiving end of a scam attempt: Unlikely words: For example, an email with "business proposal" or another opportunity-related term as an attachment or subject heading would almost certainly be a scam.  After all, who initiates a business idea with you in this way?

Out of character: An email purports to come from someone you know but the words it uses just don't sound like they'd come from that person.  Claims of secrecy: Messages that claim to be "confidential," "for your eyes only" or based on "inside information," especially from someone you don't know, should arouse your suspicions.

If it's from someone you don't know, it's a scam. Who in their right mind would send a genuinely confidential item this way?  If it's from someone you do know, be really wary. Contact them first, if you can, to check that they sent it.

Promises of wealth: As in the aforementioned Nigerian scams. But let's not forget lottery wins (e.g., "claim," "prize," "awards office") and investment emails that use words like "guaranteed," "opportunity," "risk-free" and "fortune."

If it's not a scam, it's at least likely to be spam.

Sensation: Words like "shock," "sensation" and personalized phrases like "you gotta see this" or even "is this you?" are designed to make you want to click a link or an attachment.

Never do that without checking the source.  It's easy: Be cautious of words that suggest something you had imagined would be quite tough, is easy.

For job hunters, "no experience necessary" should be a red flag. So should things like "I earned $xxx in just xx hours" -- you fill in the amount and time -- but we guarantee they'll be amazing.

Similarly, money plans that offer "instant loans" may turn out to be too good to be true.

So now that you have "inside information" on the scammers' dictionary, you should have a better idea of what to be on the lookout for.

Few of us might claim to be true students of language, but paying attention to scam words could at least give you a degree of security.

 Source: scambusters.com #551, 7/1/13