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0 comments by nortonresearch on May 14th, 2012

Nortonscientific.multiply.com

It's Scam Awareness Week, and David
Hall has some tips to keep you safe online.

Phishing is essentially an online
scam, and phishers are nothing more than tech-savvy con artists.

Online scams constantly evolve to
reflect popular events in the news. They're successful is because a scam is not
about physically attacking a computer, rather fooling the user into clicking on
a poisoned link. They use spam, malicious websites, email messages and instant
messages to trick people into divulging sensitive information, such as bank and
credit card accounts.

According to the latest Norton
Cybercrime Report, more than 868,206 New Zealanders fell victim to cybercrime
in 2010, suffering $288.2 million in direct financial losses.

Phishers may use email to request
personal information and direct recipients to respond through malicious
websites.

Look out for phishers using emotional
language, scare tactics or urgent requests to entice recipients to respond.

Phishing sites can look remarkably
legitimate, because they tend to use the copyrighted images from legitimate
sites.

Be on the lookout for requests for
confidential information via email or instant message.

Remember that fraudulent messages are
often not personalised and poorly written.

Lastly, think about any offer, any
advertisement, any email, and website before you act on any request. If it
looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Norton has several free and premium
products that can help protect against online scams.

Norton Mobile Security Lite protects
your mobile device against loss, theft and malware. Safeguard against malicious
URLs by scanning your Facebook feed using Norton Safe Web, which protects your
friends by advising them of malicious links.

The Norton Snap QR Code Reader
protects your mobile device from online threats by warning you of dangerous QR
codes and blocking unsafe websites before they load on your device.

Norton Identity Safe gives you secure
access to your website logins, credit card details and secure notes if you're
using a computer at an internet cafe or hotel business centre.

Not all antivirus programs are
equipped to handle scams, because they only look to protect against intrusive
attacks such as viruses. A security program such as Norton One and Norton 360
Version 6 will block or warn you about spam emails and protect you on the web
by alerting you if you have stumbled on to a fraudulent or phishing website.

David Hall is Symantec's North Asia
product manager.