Tag: email scams

  • Email scams have grown more sophisticated and realistic, here are 5 ways you can still tell

    Email scams have grown more sophisticated and realistic, here are 5 ways you can still tell

    Spotting an email scam used to come with familiar advice: look for spelling mistakes, awkward sentences, and messages that sound a little off. Those clues can still help, but they are no longer enough. Criminals can use artificial intelligence to write convincing messages and correct the language errors that might otherwise give them away. The FBI has warned that these tools are making fraudulent messages more believable and easier to produce.

    For businesses, the danger often arrives looking like an ordinary part of the workday. A vendor sends an invoice, a manager requests a purchase, or an account notification asks you to confirm some information. Scammers imitate these routine interactions because the requests can seem reasonable at first glance.

    You cannot prove that every email is safe just by looking at it. However, these five warning signs can help you recognize when to stop and verify before taking action.

    1. The sender’s details do not match who they claim to be.

    A familiar display name does not establish who actually sent an email. Expand the sender’s information and examine the full email address, especially the domain after the @ symbol. Watch for substituted letters, extra characters, or an unfamiliar domain attached to the name of a company you recognize. Criminals use these small differences to make impersonation attempts look legitimate.

    Compare the address with contact information you already trust rather than relying on the signature in the message. However, even a correct address is not a guarantee of safety. Criminals can compromise genuine business email accounts and use existing conversations to make fraudulent requests seem credible. Treat the sender check as one precaution, not permission to stop checking.

    1. The message pressures you to act before you can think.

    An email threatening immediate account suspension or demanding an urgent payment deserves extra scrutiny. Scammers use urgency, fear, and intimidation to push people into acting before they investigate. The message may sound authoritative and professional while still trying to rush you into a bad decision.

    Be particularly cautious when the sender discourages you from checking with anyone else. In one impersonation scheme documented by the FBI, fraudulent invoices instructed recipients to request payment instructions by email rather than telephone, helping the scammers avoid independent verification. A request that makes it harder to confirm the facts should give you a reason to pause.

    1. The email sends you somewhere unexpected through a link, attachment, or QR code.

    A document-sharing notification or account alert may lead to a fake sign-in page rather than the service it claims to represent. Criminals can copy the appearance of legitimate websites to collect the passwords or financial information people enter. An unexpected attachment also deserves scrutiny, even when it is presented as an invoice or another routine business document.

    QR codes deserve the same caution as clickable links. The FTC warns that scammers include them in emails and text messages to direct people to fraudulent sites. For an unexpected account notice, open the service through a trusted bookmark or its official app instead of following the message’s instructions. Confirm an unexpected document with the sender through a separate, trusted contact method before opening it.

    1. The sender wants your password, sign-in code, or sensitive business information.

    A message claiming to come from technical support may sound helpful while asking you to hand over account access. Requests to reply with your password should be treated as a serious warning. Employees should not send passwords or sensitive information by email simply because a message appears to come from a manager or another trusted person.

    Be just as protective of one-time sign-in codes. Scammers may claim they need a code to investigate suspicious activity or fix an account problem, when their actual goal is to access the account themselves. Do not send someone a code used to authorize your login. Contact your IT provider or the relevant organization through an established channel to verify the request.

    1. The request changes a normal business process, especially where money is involved.

    An email does not need a malicious link or attachment to cause damage. A convincing request to send a legitimate payment to a different account can be enough. Be cautious when a vendor suddenly changes banking details, a manager requests an unusual purchase, or someone asks you to bypass the usual payment approval process. These are situations associated with business email compromise scams.

    Verify changes to payment instructions by calling a number already in your records, not a new number supplied in the email. Keep any required second approval in place, even when the request appears to come from someone senior. An existing email conversation should not replace independent confirmation when the destination of your money changes. We also have this free resource with five more items to look out for when it comes to phishing scams:

    Recognizing suspicious emails should be a shared business practice, not a test employees are expected to pass without support. Give your team a clear process for checking unusual requests and reporting concerns. Regular training and an incident response plan help turn that expectation into something people can actually follow.

    At Valley Techlogic, we help businesses strengthen their defenses with email and phishing protection, employee security awareness training, simulated phishing exercises, endpoint protection, and ongoing security monitoring. These services combine technical safeguards with practical preparation for the people using your systems every day.

    Your employees should not have to make every security decision alone. Reach out to us today to discuss your current protections and how we can help your business reduce its exposure to phishing and other online scams.

    This article was powered by Valley Techlogic, leading provider of trouble free IT services for businesses in California including Merced, Fresno, Stockton & More. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on X at https://x.com/valleytechlogic

  • Received a Facebook copyright infringement email or message? You’re not alone, the evolution of the Facebook copyright scam and how to avoid falling for it

    Received a Facebook copyright infringement email or message? You’re not alone, the evolution of the Facebook copyright scam and how to avoid falling for it

    If you have a public facing Facebook page, such as a fan account page or business page, then you’ve probably been inundated with messages that look something like this:

    Of course, this contains all the hallmarks of a phishing scam. The false sense of urgency, the request for personal information, the legitimate looking branding, and the link that leads anywhere but an actual legitimate Facebook page.

    As Facebook has tried to crack down on the bots, users are now receiving emails with the same messaging. Whether the emails are pretending to be Facebook support or a law firm trying to collect on a copyright claim, the format is the same. You’re in violation and you must act now to avoid any issues.

    These emails and messages may even contain real information from your page, such as a real post they’re claiming is in violation or your Facebooks account ID (which is public information).

    This is also a self-feeding scam; the same users that fall for it are also being used to conduct the scam via the accounts that are compromised (sometimes the scammer does not even bother to change the username or profile picture to something Meta/Facebook related).

    The best course of action if you receive one of these messages is to report it to your email provider or Facebook themselves.

    As to the heart of why these messages have been so ubiquitous, you need only look to Facebooks userbase. At 3.1 billion active users as of writing across the world (outpacing its other platform Instagram with 2 billion users and its competitors such as Tiktok, WhatsApp, and X by a large margin).  They are the largest social media platform, which unfortunately puts a bigger target on their back for scammers.

    Here are four other ways you can avoid phishing scams (including the one we’re talking about here):

    1. Multi-Factor Authentication: It goes without saying, the number one way to protect most of your accounts from intrusion is the multi-pronged approach you receive from multi-factor authentication (MFA). Intruders who have your password will hit a wall when they realize they also need your phone and/or access to your email to login.
    2. Don’t Ignore Red Flags: Sense of urgency? Check. Asking for personal information? Check. Generic greetings (think Dear Sir/Madam)? Check. Always pause and look for red flags when it comes to emails/messages you receive.
    3. Don’t click on links, period. If you aren’t sure if the email is legitimate, NEVER click on the links. Need more evidence? Hover over links you receive, even if a link says Facebook.com it may really be directing you to the scammers own website to try and collect your personal information or install malware on your device.
    4. Verify the Sender: Would a Facebook email originate from @gmail.com account? No. Same with Facebook messages, legitimate messages from Facebook/Message will arrive in a distinct way that makes it easy to tell they’re legitimately from Meta support. If the message you’ve received just looks like any regular Facebook message aside from the content, it’s a scam.

    At Valley Techlogic, we offer coverage that helps prevent these type of phishing scams from causing an intrusion into your business, including advanced protection for email spam and best in class cybersecurity solutions that stop attackers in their tracks. Learn more today with a consultation.

    Looking for more to read? We suggest these other articles from our site.

    This article was powered by Valley Techlogic, leading provider of trouble free IT services for businesses in California including Merced, Fresno, Stockton & More. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on X at https://x.com/valleytechlogic and LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/valley-techlogic-inc/.