San Mateo police are reporting a recent email scam in which recipients will be notified that a child predator has moved into the area and are asked to click a link that will compromise your computer security.
It is a “phishing” email that will install malicious software on your computer to search for stored login information, passwords and even credit card numbers, according to police.
Police offer the following precautions when encountering suspicious emails:
• Be wary of emails that come from unrecognized senders, or ask you to confirm personal or financial information, aren’t personalized to you, or seem to be written in a manner designed to upset you or even threaten you;
• “Look for the S.” When conducting online transactions look to see that the website begins with https://, which indicates a secure site;
• Do it by phone. Never email personal or financial information, even to a known recipient. A phishing email opened by them will seize your information;
• Protect your computer with a firewall, anti-virus and malware detector. One that is free and highly recommended can be found at https://www.malwarebytes.org; and
• When in doubt, do a little research: snopes.com or scamdex.com are great websites to research whether an email is already reported to be a scam.
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