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Phishing scams happen when you receive an email that looks like it came from a company you trust (like AOL), but is ultimately from a hacker trying to get your information. All legitimate AOL Mail will be marked as either Certified Mail, if its an official marketing email, or Official Mail, if it's an important account email. If you get an ...
The best way to protect yourself against email phishing scams is to avoid falling victim to them in the first place. "Simply never take sensitive action based on emails sent to you," Steinberg says.
Technical support scams rely on social engineering to persuade victims that their device is infected with malware. [15] [16] Scammers use a variety of confidence tricks to persuade the victim to install remote desktop software, with which the scammer can then take control of the victim's computer.
Phishing and business email compromise scams generally involve an element of email spoofing. Email spoofing has been responsible for public incidents with serious business and financial consequences. This was the case in an October 2013 email to a news agency which was spoofed to look as if it was from the Swedish company Fingerprint Cards.
Due to the widespread use of web bugs in email, simply opening an email can potentially alert the sender that the address to which the email is sent is a valid address. This can also happen when the mail is 'reported' as spam , in some cases: if the email is forwarded for inspection, and opened, the sender will be notified in the same way as if ...
Email scams posing as the Internal Revenue Service were also used to steal sensitive data from U.S. taxpayers. [64] Social networking sites are a prime target of phishing, since the personal details in such sites can be used in identity theft; [65] In 2007, 3.6 million adults lost US$3.2 billion due to phishing attacks. [66]
Currently it is unclear how far back the origin of scam letters date. The oldest reference to the origin of scam letters could be found at the Spanish Prisoner scam. [1] This scam dates back to the 1580s, where the fictitious prisoner would promise to share non-existent treasure with the person who would send him money to bribe the guards.
In some fields, a consultant may be required to hold certain professional licenses (e.g., a civil engineer providing consulting on a bridge project may have to be a professional engineer). [79] In other types of consulting, there may be no specific qualification requirements. A legal consultant may have to be a member of the bar or hold a law ...