Let's Go Phishing!
 | Author:
Victor Sample
Vic Sample: MT43 News Treasurer |
I hope by now that everyone knows there is no Prince of Nigeria who needs to move hundreds of millions of dollars from Nigeria to a US Bank and that you were randomly selected from 300 million Americans to help him move the money AND earn millions of dollars from helping the Prince.
Over the last 20 years I have won numerous lotteries totaling over 700 million dollars Amazingly, I won those lotteries without even entering the lottery!
Those types of emails being sent out are a form of “Phishing”, an effort to get you to respond to the email and give the sender your bank account information, and social security number or to get you to send them “a small processing fee.”
Current Phishers have become more sophisticated than the early ones. In the last year, I have received at least a hundred emails notifying me that I have been selected to receive an award or gift from Home Depot, Walmart, Lowes, CVS, etc. Many emails have arrived, notifying me that UPS, FedEx and even DHL (are they still in business?) could not deliver packages to me, packages I never ordered.
Of course, these were all Phishing emails. I recently received an email notifying me that I was selected to receive a Loyalty Reward from Ryobi. The email even has the Home Depot logo in the picture.
All I have to do is answer a few questions!
How can you tell if an email like this is a real email or a Phishing email? After all, you don’t want to miss out on making the “Easiest decision of your life”.
First, have you even purchased a Ryobi product? I haven’t and I certainly didn’t sign up for any loyalty programs.
Watch for warning signs like “Easiest decision of your life”. A Loyalty program doesn’t generally require making decisions.
The best way is to look at the email address of the sender. Anyone can make up an email address and say it's from a known name like Ryobi or Home Depot. But the “@____” part of the email address is not as easy to fake.
I received this email claiming to be from the Ryobi Loyalty Rewards program. It features a Home Depot logo, but look closely at the email address.
The “@____” part of the email address is “@news. wjuyykjjgfj.com”. Nowhere in that part of the email address is the name ryobi or homedepot. It looks like a randomly generated email address designed to avoid being blocked by your email.
If you receive an email notifying you that you have been selected for some sort of reward or prize, check the email address. If it looks like it’s a bunch of random letters and not a reputable company name, it is not a real notification. It is a PHISHING email. Don’t get hooked by these phishermen!
Article Images
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PhotoCredit: Victor Sample
Image 1 Caption: Screenshot of a Phishing Email
Image 2 Caption: Phishing Sender Real Email Address Exposed
