During the Easter weekend you may have seen scams in the form of spam about the newly released iPad.
The Better Business Bureau released a bulletin warning the public to be wary of bogus offers, such as:
- Claims you can become a tester or researcher and get an iPad for free.
- Requesting product testers for the iPad. The email points to a website Testitandkeepit.com which claims they are looking for people to test the iPad for a couple months, as compensation you get to keep the iPad. The biggest red flag with this offer is you have to provide your email address and password in order to “tell your friends.”
- Researchers Wanted-Get an iPad Early and Keep it” was designed to trick people into signing up for a cell phone subscription service that cost $10 a month.
The sad part about this scenario is that Internet users still need to be warned about email fraud. By Internet users I refer to both the unsophisticated and the well educated who should know better. If you don’t know better, for more information about the BBB bulletin, please see the related article on the ERE RSS news feed at www.ere-security.ca.
Isn’t it ironic that potential purchasers of leading edge technology like the iPad would also be susceptible to low brow high tech fraud?
We all know better than to open spam and to be very prudent when opening emails from unknown sources. This, of course, is email security policy 101. Everyone should know better than to divulge any passwords. While we are on the subject relating to the iPad scam, everyone should remember to:
- Never use the same password for your computer logon, email, social networking ATM.
- Change your passwords at least once per year. I know this is painful.
- Never “loan” your password to anyone. Ever.
- Always check the digital certificate on an e-commerce transaction site. You can do this by looking at the RSS certificate and then researching the certificate provider.
- Think before going to a web site offering something for free. Perhaps get a tool that attempts to triage sites by risk. This sound hypocritical, but I found an excellent “free” tool at Mcafee at http://www.siteadvisor.com/
Have a secure week.
Regards, Ron Lepofsky, B.A. SC. (Mech Eng), CISSP
ERE Information Security and Privacy Compliance Auditors
