Pretty much everyone these days watches videos on the internet, from news to dumb kids whining about how goth/skater/hardcore/preppy/popular/cool they are on Youtube. There are lots of different places to watch videos and lots of different software you need to watch them. Apple's Quicktime and Adobe's Flash are two of the most common but
there are plenty more out there.
Would you know what to do if you went to watch a video and a message popped up telling you that you needed to update your software in order to watch the video? Would you click the link to update with out even thinking? Thousands of people do every day and fall victim to viruses and other malware.
Fake Youtube pages are on the rise and recently fake CNN videos have caught a lot of people.
Where will you most likely encounter links to these sites? Your inbox for starters, e-mails made to look like professional news subscriptions or a "friend" showing you something cool. Also, internet forums, blogs and social networking sites. Anywhere information can be exchanged you are at risk of finding these things.
Many use annoyance tactics to force you to download, clicking "cancel" just sends you in an infinite loop until you click "ok" or close your browser by way of the task manager. If you encounter one of these scams close your browser, do not click "ok" or even "cancel" as some engage in drive-by-dowloading and will download no matter what you click on.
Why You Shouldn't Mess With Phishing Sites...
I'm sure almost all of us here on Gaia have come across a phishing scam. They are so common it's not even funny. How many of you have decided to mess with a phishing site by entering fake information that insults the scammer? Seems like a harmless way to get revenge... WRONG!
This article tells how phishers are biting back, people who enter information containing profanity or other keywords that show you are wise to the scam are subject to even stronger personal attacks. Next time you get a phishing site just close the window and move on.
Common Tactics...
- Fear
- It's funny how well threatening people works to get them to fork over personal information or download things. Don't be fooled, instead stop, back away from the computer and don't come back until you can think clearly. Don't listen to e-mails telling you that you're going to be sued unless you fork over your password or a "virus warning" that is not from your current anti-virus program. Just Alt+F4 your browser and get the heck away.
E-mail from where?
- Have you ever gotten an e-mail from something like "Bob's Cars" instead of something like "bob@bobscars.com"? Many times a scam e-mail will say something professional sounding like "Internet Monitoring Team" or the name of an actual business. If your e-mail lets you see more information you'll notice it will look like "Gaia Online (sunshinebunny@hotmail.com)", most professionals have their own domain to send e-mail from. Seeing something "professional" from Hotmail, Yahoo and the like can be a red flag.
Curiosity kills the cat
- Many scams rely on human curiosity. Many people just can't resist checking it out. "Hey look at this!", "Dare to see", "Amazing, must see" can be all it takes to lure some people in. If you are one of these people you need to do your best to restrain yourself. Don't open attachments from people you don't know, and from people you do know ask them what it is first and check out the url. Check urls closely, "youtueb.com" is not "youtube.com".
