And yet one more scam ...

A new one popped into my mailbox, from the “Security Centre”. It asked for me to:

E-mail address to confirm your email identity:
User Name ID:
Password:
Re-enter password:
Date of birth:

Note the last item very carefully. Now think what happens if someone falls for this one.
Most e-mail addresses give the user’s name away.
Now the scammer has a name, and an e-mail address to go with it, and a password,
AND
That all important date of birth.

So what’s the big deal you ask? From a name and a date of birth, you can look up the online Births Marriages and Deaths Index, and for any individual you can find out the parents names. Now you can trace the mother’s name back to her parents marriage. Both names again. And now we come to the crunch.
What are the two most popular security questions?
Mother’s maiden name.
Grandmother’s maiden name.
Now all they want is a bank account name and they have the info to recover a pin number.

So it is a little work, but the scammer does not care for ay individual - get enough data, clean out enough accounts.

Any mail that is the slightest bit suspicious - do not open. This has been said before, but it needs to be repeated and repeated.
My approach (not available to everyone, I know) is to forward it to my g-mail account.
Some of the more obvious viruses will get picked up by the outgoing mailserver.
If it gets through, I open it with an Apple Mac (and this is an older one so PC viruses don’t work).

You cannot be too careful.

Geoff

Thanks Geoff, its amazing just how many scams are out there i dont think i would answer that one either .We cant be to careful,take care have a happy Christmas and a safe new year .

Barbara.xx

Thanks for taking the time to post this Geoff.

Merry Christmas.

luv Pollx

I always use a different surname, dob is always made up, even the area where I live is not quite right. Thanks for the heads up though Lynn XX… ( which is my real name)