Please be aware of fake emails claiming to be from your bank, Australia Post, FedEx, DHL, the ATO, Qantas, Microsoft, Apple, PayPal and so on. These aim to capture information such as account logins, contact information and bank account details. They may also try to install some sort of RansomWare onto your computer.
Things to look for in the email that are easily noticed when you take the time are as follows
- From: email address. Often this will be some sort of random address and won’t actually be from the business the email is purporting to be from
- Poor grammar and/or spelling mistakes. Because these scams originate from all over the world, quite often they are poorly written and littered with subtle grammatical errors.
- An attachment in a ZIP file. Often the scammers will put a bad file inside a ZIP file to circumvent the email attachment scanning on y our system.
- Check the actual URL address in any link prior to clicking this link. To do this in Outlook, hover the mouse cursor over the link (don’t click it) and wait for the real URL to pop up. If the email is supposedly from Microsoft, if legitimate, the link should be taking you to a .microsoft.com page. Beware that it isn’t trying to connect to xxxx.microsoft.com.otherdomain.com etc.
Many of these scams are getting that good now, the email looks almost identical to those that are real. In addition to the very good impersonation of a real email, they target emotional ‘hot buttons’ that will trick you. The Australia Post email stating that they wre unable to deliver a package to you is a classic example. The excitement of potentially receiving a package will override your instinct to suspect that this email might be a scam. You have to be hyper-vigilant these days.
Golden rules
- If you have any doubt, just delete the message. Don’t let your curiosity get the better of you.
- No company will ever request that you provide usernames, passwords, account numbers etc. from an email message. Not ever.
- We urge all users to be vigilant when opening emails, always keep an eye on suspicious links.
- Prevention is so much better than the cure in this case.
If you suspect you may have clicked on the links accidentally, please turn off your PC immediately and call our Helpdesk.