Scam Of The Week: Valentine’s Day Phishing Attacks

It is time to remind your users that heartlesscon artists use social engineering tactics totrick people looking for love.

 The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Centerwarns every year that scammers use poetry,flowers, and other gifts to reel in victims, theentire time declaring their "undying love."

These callous criminals -- who also trollsocial media sites and chat rooms in search of romantic victims -- usually claim to be Americanstraveling or working abroad. In reality, they often live overseas and it's a whole industry withplanned criminal campaigns focused on days like this.

The Valentine's Day Scams Are Plentiful

There are many Valentine's Day scams, but the most prevalent are phony florists, online datingscams, phony Valentine's day electronic greeting cards and delivery scams. These days,organized cybercrime create whole malicious florist websites, or send you an email claiming tobe from a local florist with a great deal (just click here) to save big on flowers.

Fake electronic greeting cards can be filled with malware and if you click on the link to open thecard, you will infect your computer or other electronic device with malware that will steal yourpersonal information and use it to make you a victim of identity theft.

Another current Valentine's day delivery email scam is about the delivery of a gift basket of wineand flowers, however the person bringing the gift basket requests five dollars or less as a fee tobe paid by credit card because alcohol is being delivered. When you fill out the online form, thescammer runs up charges on your credit card.

I suggest you send the following to your employees, friends and family this weekend:

It's Valentine's Day and the scammers are out in full force... again. There are many ways theseonline criminals try to trick you, but the most common are phony florists, online dating scams,phony electronic greeting cards and delivery scams. So, here are the red flags you need to lookout for.

Do not trust emails or advertising from online florists or other gift retailers until you are sure thatthey are valid. Otherwise, you might be turning over your credit card information to a scammeror infect your computer with malicious software.

Do not trust an online greeting card, particularly if it does not indicate who sent it to you. Bevery wary of a card sent by "a secret admirer." Even if you recognize the name, confirm that itwas really sent from that person before you click on the link and open the card.

Do not trust special deliveries, there is no special charge for alcohol so if someone requires acredit card payment for such a delivery, just politely decline knowing you just dodged a bullet.

Do not trust anyone who indicates he or she is in love with you and then wants to communicatewith you right away on an email account outside of the dating site, claiming to be workingabroad, asking for your address and poor grammar which is often a sign of a foreign romancescammer. Many romance scams originate in Eastern Europe... The rule still applies: THINK before you click.

DropBox Phishing Alert

If you received an email from Jayne Peaslee on 2/17/2017 around 3:20 p.m. please do not open the
email but send it directly to your SPAM folder or delete it. The email was regarding a Dropbox
document. IT is aware of the issue.

If you did click on the email and open the document link please change your MyCCC password. To
change your MyCCC password please navigate to the left hand side of the welcome tab. Click on Luminis
my Account Portlet, there you can change your password.