They will not send you an email asking you to click on a link to a site that has a form into which you have to type personal details. In case of doubt, call the bank and ask - “are you emailing people about job opportunities”? Better they think you mad than have your bank account emptied by scam artists.
This is a scam that has come to light in Australia. People looking for work received an email seemingly from Credit Suisse bank advertising a job opportunity. The email asked the recipients to go to a Web site that was a clever replica of the actual Credit Suisse site - but it took the potential victim to an application form for the 'vacancy'.
The site was so realistic that it took experts 'some time' to confirm that it was fake.
Be paranoid. Assume the worst. In case of doubt - call your bank. Don’t let your understandable desire to get work cloud your judgement. The scammers prey on such vulnerability.
A woman in New South Wales lost $9000 in such a scam.
She got an email from her bank (but not really), asking for confirmation of her banking information. She did as she was asked to do- coughed up the details- and in just three hours three withdrawals for $4000, $2000 and $3000 were allegedly taken from her bank account.
Another cautionary tale – and don’t forget- new and devious variations on these scams will continue to emerge, so be on your guard. Look after you personal details like you would your three year old.
Call to Action
To all you frustrated, under appreciated security programmers and developers out there in your Dogbert
infested pens, now is your chance to do something noble for mankind.
Send us your ideas for Tip of the Week and we will publish the best. It must be in language that your
granny would understand and be able to follow. Assuming your granny is not an MIT graduate.
We are trying to build a body of knowledge that helps the average user, as well as more sophisticated folk
who already have wads of techno babble infested sites to turn to.
We believe the average user gets little help from anyone, and we sorely need his or her co-operation to
secure cyberspace. The vendors try to communicate with them, but don’t seem to comprehend how truly
mystified the well- educated (non lunk headed) user really is. They make a lot of ill judged assumptions
about what people know, and as a result the message falls flat.
Bill Gates supposedly once said ‘ we don’t talk to end users’.
Needless to say, that far sighted strategic insight has long died a death and Microsoft are positively
falling over themselves to get down and dirty with the common man, or woman, as the case may be.
So keep it simple. An ABC of ‘what to do, how to do it, or what to look out for’ is particularly useful.
Remember- you may not be appreciated in your pen, but you can be in cyberspace.
