How to Spot and Protect Against Scam Emails

From Your Friends at Integrity Computer Consulting and Repair

Spam, phishing, and spoofing emails are not legitimate and are phishing for account credentials to your email and/or Dropbox account.  If you have entered any credentials into any link from these types of emails, please call our office so we can help you secure your accounts.

Common Definitions of the Types of Malicious Emails: 

Spam email: usually commercial advertising; usually a result of signing up for something; an economic solution for retailers because email is cheap and most times, free. 

Phishing Email: an email to attempt a fraudulent activity like to steal your account information or personal information, often used in conjunction with spoofing to make the email believable.  A lot of these emails originate from hacked accounts, where a hacker or hack program has gained entry and is using the account to send out these types of email.

Spoofing Email: the forgery of an email header/label so that the message appears to have originated from someone or somewhere other than the actual source; these can also originate from hacked accounts. Spoofing is often an issue on the recipients' side, not the sender.

All email accounts are experiencing hacks and malicious emails.  Real estate in general gets hit hard… agents are marketed so heavily on the internet.  Your email and phone numbers are out there, along with your profession.  This is an easy target for spammers and hackers to exploit, simply because they know real estate deals with large monetary transactions.

We can set spam filtering rules all day long to thwart against receiving these types of email, but hackers move fast; you block one email address, domain or offending IP, and then they are already on to the next. 

So, what can you do?

The best policy against spam/spoofing/scams is prevention with your email habits. How you handle your email account and emails are paramount.

1. When opening emails… check the email address, is the email header/name/label for correct to the email account? 

1. Is the sender one you know? If not, don't open any attachments or click on any links in the email, mark the sender as spam.
2. Is the sender someone you know sending you something you weren't expecting? Call the sender and verify.  If it's not a legit email, you have then notified them of an issue and they can secure their account -or- if its legitimate, they will verify that they did indeed send what you received and you can safely open.

2. If you suspect suspicious activity on your email account(s), please report it to us immediately so we can secure your account and stop further damage.
3. If you get a request to reset a password or confirm account credentials, go directly to the website of the service in question.  Never reset any account credentials from links in an email.
4. When sending documents, a good practice is a follow-up call to the recipient to let them know you what you are sending and if you password protect a document, provide them the password. 
5. Set a protocol with your clients and let them know how you handle secure emails (like send and call) and then follow through, every time.
6. Consider password-protecting documents that you send.
7. Use a separate email for spam.  Set up an email that is separate from your business and personal accounts to sign up for newsletters, mailing lists, retail purchases, and the like.
8. Run scans for viruses and malware frequently (every week or month depending on the volume of online activity or emails), but remember, antivirus like all technology, is not fail-proof protection does not protect against 100% of threats.  We like to equate antivirus to snow tires… just because you have them, does not mean you won't get stuck in the snow.
9. Have a working backup. The majority of ransomware/cryptolocker-style viruses come from infected email attachments; the only way to restore your data is from a backup, not paying the ransom they sometimes request.

If you have any questions about a suspicious email you can always send it to us; REMINDER: because these items are spam, they may end up in our spam filter.  If you do not receive a response within an hour or two, please call our office. 

If you need any assistance with anything else mentioned above, this can be done at tech clinics or remotely. If you have an urgent need, please call or email our office!

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Coronavirus – Hygiene and Action Reminder

1. Wash your hands before and after using your own or any community computer.
2. Regularly sanitize your own phones and computers, especially if used by multiple people.
3. Once a week (or once a day), turn your computer off and using an alcohol swab (preferred) or Lysol wipe, thoroughly wipe down your keyboard and mouse, and really any common surface that's touched.  Make sure to get in between the keys and the scroll wheel on the mouse.  If you have a touchscreen, make sure to wipe the screen.  If you have a laptop, wipe the entire case, open and closed.  Be careful of using Lysol wipes around speakers and ports to avoid excessive moisture buildup.
4. For phones, do the same, but be careful of using Lysol wipes around speakers and input jacks/ports to avoid excessive moisture buildup.
5. If using Lysol or Clorox wipes, make sure to read the label and keep the surface wet for the amount of time specified by the manufacturer.

If you have any questions about updates, pop-ups, emails, or need a clean-up, this can be done remotely.  Please contact our office via phone at 208.288.4345 or email info@integrityidaho.com if you need immediate assistance.