Let’s Play Spot the Difference

Let’s Play Spot the Difference

September 7, 2017 | Comment

Can you tell the difference between these two seemingly identical bills I received by email from Virgin Media?

 

I have to admit that initially I couldn’t. It was only when I saw the bill total of £498.52 and did a double take that I took a closer look. When you do that it becomes clear that:

  • my account details are missing
  • the email address, while valid, isn’t correct
  • when hovering over the View Bill button it wouldn’t have taken me to the Virgin Media website.

I consider myself to be pretty internet savvy but I was shocked at how well … Read the rest

Flattery as a form of spam

August 11, 2015 | Comment

As spam goes this is pretty benign but irritating nevertheless and I have no idea how to rid myself of it.

Just recently I have started to receive messages through the contact form on our website that are allegedly related to our blog posts and they are smothering with kindness and praise for our work.

I blog quite often and I seriously appreciate your information. This article has truly peaked my interest. I’m going to take a note of your site and keep checking for new information about once a week. I subscribed to your Feed too.

When they take … Read the rest

To Avoid Phishing Please Sing In

To Avoid Phishing Please Sing In

September 13, 2013 | Comment

Please Sing InI am occasionally asked by family and friends to give advice on whether an email is genuine.

These are not emails from Nigerian kings looking to transfer out money via your bank account but emails that appear to be from companies and government departments that you would recognise and may have account and dealings with.

Of course this recognition is exactly what phishers are aiming at. You are thrown that your bank has sent you an email requesting that you login and view an important message from them.

There is actually a pretty easy well to tell if the email … Read the rest

Twitter Spam

Twitter Spam

June 23, 2009 | 2 comments

image Is it just me or is Twitter spam on the increase? I have had a stream of notifications of today telling me that someone is now following me. You can tell that these are spam accounts as they have only one update and multiple followers. Oh, and the scantily clad woman in the picture is also a bit of a give away! You can block these individually but what would be really good would be if I could reject anyone who has, say, less than 10 updates.

There is a Twitter feed with advice and guidance on spam (@spam… Read the rest