'Tis the Season for Malicious E-cards??

It's that time of year again when everyone is starting to get into the holiday spirit.  Unfortunately this time of year tends to bring out cyber criminals too.  That is why it is important to not let your guard down especially when it comes to protecting your valuable information.  Cyber criminals are getting into the holiday spirit by devising malicious scams wrapped-up in a holiday looking disguise.  They are doing this to try and take advantage of your built up holiday spirit and get you to execute the malicious software they delivered to you.

There are few that can say that they have never received an e-card. Cyber criminals know that e-cards are popular and take advantage of the well-known fact. Therefore, they have constructed Holiday e-cards that often can carry viruses, Trojans, spyware, and much more.



<Click here to get the entire holiday greeting>

A malicious e-card can look like the picture above.  After you click on it executes the malicious payload.  Everything may seem okay, but in reality the malicious code is just waiting for you to go to a common website.  When you finally do go to that particular website a pop-up window opens that resembles the website and prompts you to enter your credit card information.  This is just one example of a malicious e-card that carried a Trojan.  There are many other methods that use e-cards to deliver malicious code.

So what can you do to prevent yourself from becoming a victim of a Holiday e-card scam?  One way is to look for the signs of a fake e-card.  There are a number of signs that will identifiy if an e-card is legitimate or not.  Below is a list of signs to look for that was taken from Scambusters.com:

• Spelling mistakes e.g. your name is spelt wrong
• Sender is someone you don't know
• Errors are present in the message
• The sender has an impractical name e.g. Joe Snuffy, John Deere, etc.
• Message contains a strange URL

Scambusters.com also provides methods that will lessen your chances of becoming a victim of an e-card scam if utilized.  The methods are listed below:

• Use antivirus software and ensure it is updated regularly
• Always read the fine print in the terms and conditions if prompted.  If you fail to then you may be agreeing to something that you normally wouldn't agree to
• If it is from an unknown source then don't click on it, open attachements, or download
• Delete it if you don't know the sender

The above are good signs to look for when trying to identify a fake e-card and methods to utilize that will lessen your chances of becoming a victim, but the best weapon against them is common sense.  If there is any doubt in your mind about the legitimacy of an e-card that you have received then use some common sense and just do not open it, delete it instead.

Thanks for reading and Happy Holidays!

Reference:
http://www.scambusters.org/ecards.html