It’s October, and that means this month is National Cyber Security Awareness Month. So in the spirit of Stop. Think. Connect., The Tech Herald offers an examination of the latest scam that is clogging inboxes the world over.
The email is a run of the mill Phishing scam. It starts by alerting you to the fact that your Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS) payment has been rejected. In addition, the scam has been known to say there has been an error with payment, or that a payment needs to be made. Some of the subjects also warn you that this is the second notice.
Below is an image of the message.
On its face, it looks both important and legit. It appears to come from an official domain (.gov), and it’s filled with details that are confusing enough to make you want to start clicking links for more information.
That’s the goal. The people blasting this message around the globe want you to click their link. Once you arrive at the page, they plan to rob you of personal information by having you fill out a form. Messages like this can also be used to deliver Malware, which is pushed to your system the moment you visit the website.
As we mentioned, this is National Cyber Security Awareness Month. The National Cyber Security Alliance has launched an initiative called Stop. Think. Connect. in support of NCSAM.
According to SafetyandSecurityMessaging.org, the Stop. Think. Connect. program is about taking a moment to stop and think about the places we visit online, the information that we share, and the communities in which we participate before and while we are connected to the Internet.
We’re going to look at this message again and break it down using the Stop. Think. Connect. model, point out some of the obvious and not-so-obvious red flags. If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment and ask us.
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