Do NOT Click That Link!!

This is another public service announcement from GetMorePC. We’ve talked about this issue before, but it’s important that we talk about it again. DO NOT CLICK THAT LINK!!

There are a lot of shady emails going around that look like they are coming from someone you know. They might be coming from your accountant. Or they might be coming from another trusted vendor. They might be coming from a close friend or acquaintance. These emails might actually be from someone you know and their email account has been hacked, or it could appear to be from someone you know and actually be a spoof email.

Email spoofing is the forgery of an email header so that the message appears to have originated from someone or somewhere other than the actual source.

These emails typically have come with either an attachment or a link. It could be anything from a Dropbox link, Word document, PDF or zip file. Whatever you do, DO NOT CLICK THAT LINK!! It might look legit. And you will be curious and want to check it out. Unless you are expecting something from this person DO NOT CLICK THAT LINK!!

What do you do if you get an email like this? Start by emailing the person directly asking them if they really sent you this email. If they don’t respond or say their account has been hacked, trash the email.

What happens if you have already clicked on the link or downloaded the file? There is a good chance either your computer has been infected with a virus. If you visited a link that asked for your username and password (this happens a lot with Paypal and Facebook), it is likely that your account has been hacked.

There are a few steps you can take to protect your computer and your accounts.

1. Have a good antivirus solution. We just so happen to have a great managed antivirus solution. We can catch your viruses before they are a problem.
2. Set up 2-Factor Authentication on any account that supports 2-Factor Authentication.
3. Turn on your email spam blocker. A lot of times your spam blocker will catch these malicious emails.

A lot of very intelligent people fall victim to these scams every day. Don’t be one of the statistics. If you want to learn more about how you can protect yourself online sign up for our security training course. You will learn more about the variety of scams out there and how to protect yourself.