How to protect yourself from email scams?

Last week a school on Rarotonga was asked to supply their username and password to their internet account. The email came from an email account called This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it When the principal asked the Ministry of Education’s EduNet Team to supply the internet username and password to the email account, we were very suspicious, even though the message looked like it was coming from Telecom.

It later became apparent that the email was a phishing scam. An email phishing scam is an email message sent out to potential victims by a scammer pretending to be someone else, in this case Telecom’s customer care centre. In this example the scammers were asking for the school’s internet username and passwords. If they had obtained the username and password, they would have been able to get access to the school’s email and internet accounts and be able to use that for whatever purpose they wanted. Fortunately this did not happen.

How we could tell?

• Asks for username and password. The first clue that raised our suspicions was that

How to protect yourself from email scams?

his is an example of an email scam that you may receive. Be extra careful when dealing with these types of emails.

• Filter spam.
• Don’t trust unsolicited emails.
• Treat email attachments with caution.
• Don’t click links in email messages.
• Install antivirus software and keep it up to date.
• Install a personal firewall and keep it up to date.
• Configure your email client for security.
• Don’t give out usernames or passwords via email, even if they claim to be from your bank or internet service provider.

What do you do if you think you are a victim?

If you suspect an email message to be a scam, contact EduNet or Telecom about it. We will then advise you about whether the email is in fact a scam or not. If you believe you might have revealed sensitive information about your organization, report it to the EduNet Team and Telecom right away. We can then try to reduce the risk to your computer systems.

Bibliography

US CERT. (2010). Recognizing and Avoiding Email Scams.
Retrieved 2010, from United States Computer Readiness Team:
http://www.us-cert.gov/reading_room/emailscams_0905.pdf