The holiday season is a time when email phishing by criminals is prevalent. Security experts estimate this to be a $445 Billion business. Look out for emails you may receive from people you don’t know, especially if it mentions a delivery of a parcel that you are not sure you ordered.
What to look for in the subject line or body of an email:
- We could not deliver your parcel …
- Please confirm your DHL shipment …
- Problems with delivering item #…
- Delivery receipt and confirmation # …
- Courier unable to deliver the parcel …
- Please download / open attaching to view detail and confirmation of your address.
These fake email messages often either contain malware that infiltrates your computer or uses a botnet to find and extract your personal information, including your financial account logins, so they can sell it. Most damaging of all are messages that contain ransomware which allows criminals to remotely lockup your computer. And as a double wammy, they will send messages to everyone in your address book demanding payment, usually the untraceable digital currency known as Bitcoin.
How can you protect yourself?
Take the time to look carefully at any email you get about a package delivery that is unexpected. Before you click on anything in the email or open an attachment, make sure the email address is the real company. Experts say, if you have any doubts, don’t click!
You can usually click on the email address in the From field in the email to see if the actual email address it came from is the company or some odd variant. Make sure the email includes your full name, customer number and actual information about the company. As an example, an email purporting to be from FedEx may actually have a non-existent email address, like FedEx-deliver.com.