Seems that the 2008 festive season started early this year for spammers and scammers. The global financial crisis increased due to Cybercrooks. They attack on banks and their customers with malicious software, spam, phishing attacks and other online tricks. Especially when online retailers build up their web-based direct-to-consumer outreach, offering promotions and sales to boost Internet sales, cybercrooks will look to take advantage of shoppers trying to snag a bargain.

According to the Sourcewire, the Proofpoint Attack Response Centre declares that despite recent declines in overall spam volumes, the 2008 festive season will be accompanied by an increased level of activity from online scammers and spammers.

In order to safe yourself from the above mentioned threats the email security vendor Proofpoint offers “Five Golden Rules” that consumers can follow to make sure their cyber-holiday season is a safe one:

1. Be aware: Suspicious look at any email might save you, especially if the requests are to provide personal IDs, financial information, user names or passwords.

2. Don’t click: If you are not 100% sure that the source of the email is trusted than the click on the links are less desirable. But, what to do then? Open a browser, type the actual Web address for the site into the address bar. Alternatively, call the company using a phone number you already know.

3. Be secure: While shopping online, entering important information like credit card numbers, or updating personal information, you should be sure you’re using a secure web site. The secure web server address begins with “https://��� instead of the usual “http://���. or in order to indicate the web is secure there is an icon (such as Internet Explorer’s “padlock” icon).

4. Don’t fill out email forms: Especially those asking for personal information. Again visit the company’s actual web site.

5. Keep an eye on your accounts: Controlling accuracy of credit card and bank statements on a regular basis, especially during this time of financial turmoil and during the Christmas period will save u from later surprises. In the case of seeing anything suspicious, one should contact bank or building society immediately.


Sources:
http://www.proofpoint.com
http://www.sourcewire.com/releases/rel_display.php?relid=LigmE