Online Threats In 2012

As we moved on towards the future, online threats have evolved over time as well, the online threats in 2012 are very much different from those a few years back. The online threats in 2012 evolved from the need to download something to making use of trust and social web space to steal information from you. I have seen a shocking amount of my own friends falling prey to such threats that I feel that there is a need to inform the readers out there. No matter how these threats evolved, we will still use this few areas to identify real deals and fake scams.

 

Two very interesting cases which I wish to highlight is the $100 promotion card from Shell and KFC.   The URL looks like this

http://gassfree.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/

Of course this scam’s cover had already been blown but how do you identify it in the first place. And the most shocking part of all was that despite the fact that the 2nd KFC scam had a similar URL that ends with amazonaws.com/, I still see lots of my facebook contacts spreading it like a real deal, after knowing that the shell deal is fake.

 

Rule 1

Check the URL if it points to the company. If it is shell, for sure it will have a URL that has shell.com or somthing.

 

Rule 2

A real company will have a list of terms and conditions for you to read stating the time frame of the competition, participating companies and it should even come with contact numbers email for you to call and make enquires if needed.

 

Rule 3 ( This is important)

A legit company will not force you to “like” a link first before showing you what is in store for you. It is aganist the law to “trick” or by any means make someone do anything against his own will. If the company is good, you will “like” that post, link or whatever on your own accord and free will. Why must they make you “like” the post? In fact, after clicking on the “like”, it only spreads and post it as a status update on your wall without your own knowledge.

This rule number 3 applies to even videos in facebook. Do not bother watching videos that tell you to click on “likes” before you are allowed to watch. They only want you to either

 

1. Spread that video for them

2. Make you accept and install some bull shit app that most likely takes control of your facebook account and spams messages at regular intervals, without you knowing.

 

 

Filling up a survey/forms or questionaries in facebook

 

While all these may seem harmless enough, what is unknown to a lot of people is that these questionaries might seemingly innocent enough, gets you to fill a whole bunch of information such as contact numbers, address, names, ID numbers, and all the way to even facebook login and credit card information.

 

At this point in time, you might be laughing at me. Which idiot fills up all these information to someone you do not know. How about a competition telling you to fill up a form to get a free trial iPad 2.

 How many people fall for this? Ha. Own up people. You know it. All they want is your credit card information. You think they really send you the iPad, iPhone? So be extremely skeptical about such competitions and surveys. Crooks are behind such web pages.

I liked this video in particular, on how detailed it actually explains why you must be extremely careful about getting free stuffs.

 

If you cannot identify malicious sites and apps, simply install the safego app by bitdefender.  This app will be added to your facebook just like any games, except that it scans all your friends posts and apps and warns you of bad content.

 

 

“Like” a photo or video

 

While this scam is already quite outdated, but it still exist. If you get to a facebook page that demands you like the video first before you can watch it. Be very wary. Especially when the picture or video has only less then 100 comments that praise this video to high heavens but yet it has 200 000 likes. Something really fishy and odd about this and you better not click on the “like” button.

 

 Downloading of free apps

 

A lot of people with bad intent are starting to create apps with additional purposes, and that is to steal information off your smartphones. Even though there will be “app” watch dogs monitoring the apps that are uploaded to the market place or itunes store. Some may still slip through the cracks and remain undetected for a while. By then if you are already using them unsuspectingly, you have a lot of private information to lose. Always check the grading of the app and read the reviews. If no body reviews that app at all and it gets 5 stars rating. Ignore that app totally. It is odd.

These are the malware trends that are more common in the current times.  I hope that the online users out there exercise extra caution against suspicious content.  In general, hackers these days do not want to in