Scammers will try all sorts of methods to get your information. The most common method is for a person to impersonate some authority in the hopes that you will simply tell or send them the information.

Recently, I've noticed there's yet another Facebook scam email floating about. This email pretends to be from Facebook and seems innocuous by asking that you simply update your account.

The problem is that the email is not from Facebook and should you click on the link you're taking to a server outside the USA made to look like the Facebook login page. Next what usually happens is you log in think you're updating your account, but in fact you're actually giving some scammer your Facebook log in information. While this is bad, imagine if you did the same with your banking information.

For this reason, I always try to log into my accounts directly though the browser without clicking on links. When I do follow links, I check the browser and not the email to make sure I'm on the correct site. Further if the site is sensitive (or a very large site) know the difference between http and https). For instance, if you go to Bank of the West's site (no I don't back there which is why I picked it for an example) you will see the following:

https://www.bankofthewest.com/

HTTPS is a secure method for sending password information. If you're supposed to be on a banking site and don't see https, be very suspicious.

So how did I know this was a fake email? When I hovered over the link my email program displays the actual link. In this case it said the link would take me to:

What's important to note is that while it may look like a facebook link at a glance, note it doesn't stop at dot com, instead it added .xxxx.be. This means it is really a be address. You can think of this as different countries or different zip codes. For instance there is more than one city named Newark, likewise the way the internet is set up it is the last place listed in this part that is where the site is looked for. www.anything.com.something.be is going to send you to a webpage at something.be and not anything.com. Just like mail sent to Memphis TX is not going to go to Memphis Egypt.

What we should take away from this it not that the internet is a scary place, but that that just like we shouldn't trust our information to someone calling us on the phone, we shouldn't trust unsolicited emails. If someone called me saying they'd represented the back. I would ask for their information, tell them I'll call them right back, hang up, get the number for the main office they were located, call the switchboard and ask if the person was an employee (perhaps verify they were in the right deparment) and then ask to be connected to them. We should use that same common sense for emails.

 http://www.facebook.com.xxxxxxx.be/usersdirectory/LoginFacebook.php?ref=01420939933302128354354730013162953719277862079117005634813015&email=sdkdks@jerichojki.com

Thanks for the information.

Gwen