For Immediate Release:
Dateline: Boston,
MA
Friday, May 13, 2016
If you want to know the latest on “any topic”, just sign up for Google Alerts. Google will e-mail you notifications of new information coming online. I have Google Alerts for “Home Invasion” “Identity Theft” “Burglary” “Computer Security” and many more.  So what could be so harmful about receiving alerts about topics or people who are famous for being famous or your favorite presidential candidate?
- A scamster creates a website and inserts popular search terms such as “Kate Middleton” or “Donald Trump.”
- If you signed up for Donald Trump, you’ll not only receive legitimate alerts from Google, but also links originating from the scammer’s site. You won’t know which is which.
- These fraudsters have figured out a way to circumvent Google’s security.
- Clicking on these links could download malware into your computer.
In another example Intel Security’s McAfee does the “Most Dangerous Celebrity” survey based on malicious search results. They then determine which searched celebrity sites produce the most malware. What can you do? - A tell-tale clue of a scam is that when you hover over the link inside your e-mail, the URL doesn’t correlate to the alleged source of the news. If it doesn’t match up, skip it. A scammer’s URL isn’t going to have what appears to be a legitimate news outlet address.
- Narrow your search down. So if you want the latest in Trump’s polls, type “Donald Trump polls” in the Google Alert field. Otherwise, just leaving it as “Donald Trump” will not only flood your in-box, but it will be much more likely that some of those “alerts” will be fraudulent.
- Another way to narrow the parameters is to set the alerts for “news,” “blogs,” “best results” and “United States.”
- Be very suspicious of URLs that do not end in a dot-com, net, org or other familiar suffix. Often, scammy URLs come from foreign countries where the suffix is different, such as “fr” for France or .ru for Russia or .cn for China.
- If a link appears to be fraudulent, report it to Google.com/alerts.
If you’re signed up for Google Alerts for numerous topics, consider cancelling some of these, especially if it’s a hot topic that makes headlines nearly every day, such as the presidential race—which you’re bound to see anyway simply by visiting a reputable news site. Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert to TheBestCompanys.com discussing identity theft prevention. About the Author
ROBERT SICILIANO, CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com is fiercely committed to informing, educating, and empowering Americans so they can be protected from violence and crime in the physical and virtual worlds. His "tell it like it is" style is sought after by major media outlets, executives in the C-Suite of leading corporations, meeting planners, and community leaders to get the straight talk they need to stay safe in a world in which physical and virtual crime is commonplace. Siciliano is accessible, real, professional, and ready to weigh in and comment at a moment's notice on breaking news. Similar Posts- Search Engines Link to Malware in Social Media Search
Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert Now that the 3 major search engines Google, Bing and Yahoo index real-time search for Twitter and other social networks, consumers must be aware that not all relevant search is a safe click. Scammers and identity thieves see this as real-time free advertising for their malware. When news breaks, the social media - Protect Yourself from Holiday Shopping Scams
Even though the highly publicized retail data breaches have involved off-line brick and mortar stores, this doesn’t mean that security is high with online shopping. Scammers and hackers are waiting for you in more ways than you know, such as: Fake product reviews Non-existent products Delivered products that don’t match what was seen on the retail site Shoppers - How to Spot a Splog
I really enjoy reading blogs. And since you are here, reading my blog post, I’m guessing you do too. Blogs are a great way of gaining information and learning about different perspectives on a wide variety of topics. Unfortunately, spammers have tainted this medium with splogs. The word splog is a combination of the words spam - Google Hack Whacks Passwords
Code named Gaia after “Greek Goddess of Earth” a Google single sign on password system was hacked in December. The NY Times reports “the intruders do not appear to have stolen passwords of Gmail users, and the company quickly started making significant changes to the security of its networks after the intrusions. But the - How to sign out of all Google Accounts
Let’s cut to the chase (never mind how you misplaced your phone): There are several ways to sign out of your Google accounts remotely. It takes three steps, and you’ll need the desktop version of Google. On a mobile use a browser opposed to the Gmail/Google app and sign in at gmail.com. Seek out “Desktop version”
|