This content was created by Robert Siciliano. This content was uploaded by Robert Siciliano. This is a YouTube video titled "Cyber Monday 12 Scams of Christmas @McAfeeConsumer" (published 2012-11-27). It is a short interview/consumer-security segment in which a host interviews McAfee identity-theft expert Robert Siciliano about holiday/Cyber Monday online scams—phishing, fake e-tailers, smishing, malicious apps, ransomware—and practical advice (delete suspicious emails, visit retailer sites directly, use antivirus/anti-spyware/anti-phishing/firewall, and keep OSes updated) to protect consumers.
Chapters
Or are they scams that can get you into big trouble? Joining me now is McAfee identity theft expert Robert Siciliano. And Rob, if it's too good to be true but it's online, it's got to be legit for some people because it's right there. What kind of advice do you have for people?
Just like mom said, you know, if it's too good to be true in the physical world, it's also too good to be true online.
Yeah, but how do you know? I mean, there's some really clever folks out there that— whether— I am always amazed by the people that do the phishing. They make up the perfect letterhead, the logos of the banks and the companies. It looks just like an official statement.
You receive an email that looks like it's coming from a legitimate entity, and this time of the year it would be an e-tailer, someone like a Best Buy or an Amazon, but in fact it's fake to lure you to visiting a website, ultimately plugging in your credit card information and getting scammed and they have your digits and they make unauthorized charges. So if you're— if you receive emails like that, the best thing to do really is just to hit delete. If you see any too-good-to-be-true type offers, just do a search on Google or Yahoo or Bing and find out, you know, if in fact that's legit. But once you start clicking links in the body of these phishing emails, that's when you get yourself into some trouble.
Well, it would seem— it would seem to me that if I was a bad guy and I was somewhat computer savvy, I could send out this blast of emails about your recent purchase at eBay, at Walmart, wherever it might be. We, we, our security department has detected a problem. Please reply so that we can make sure your recent order went through. They're assuming that most, not most, but a lot of people, millions of people, have recently purchased something there. So they're going, they have to be legit because they know.
Yeah, you hit the nail on the head. That's exactly how they do it. So if in fact you do get an email like that, and whether or not you have or haven't actually purchased product. What, what you would do is go directly to the website itself, like go to the Walmart, go to the eBay, and if you have actually made a purchase in the past, you should have an account there. So just plug in your username and password and go check any inbox messages to see if in fact there's any notification there. Otherwise, like I said, once you start clicking links in the body of these emails, that's when you get yourself into trouble. So you have to make sure you have antivirus, anti-spyware, anti-phishing, and a firewall to protect you from any viruses that might get on your machine.
All right, so you're, you know, McAfee, everybody knows about McAfee, and you've got some big-name competitors out there as well. Is this the busiest season for your industry where you're just really scouring the internet for these sort of scams?
So bad guys have been ramping up all year long just for this time of the year, and you know, throughout the year we see all the different scams that are occurring and what ones are ramping up during this time of year, like fake e-tailers, so websites are being set up specifically fake, fraudulent, to get you to visit them, again, with these too-good-to-be-true offers. We're seeing Skype message scares where you might receive an instant message via Skype, and that instant message says, you know, check out this funny picture. You click a link in that message, and it locks down your PC and holds your data for ransom. We're seeing malicious mobile applications this time of the year where you click on the application and it records your personal information. Fake text messages called smishing. Once you click the links in the smish via the text message, Again, it compromises your device. Androids are a really big problem. PCs are a really big problem. Even Macs are getting viruses today. So again, make sure you protect all your devices across each device with anti-spyware, anti-phishing, a firewall, and also update your operating systems as well.
Yeah, alright, good advice. Um, too good to be true always rings true as well. Robert Siciliano, McAfee, thank you so much.
