Scam of the Week

In this week’s scam, you receive an alarming email from the Social Security Administration, or SSA. The email has an urgent subject line that warns about an issue with your account and includes an attachment that looks like an official government letter. 

In this week’s scam, you receive an unexpected appointment confirmation email from the National Bank of Canada. Since the email is sent from the bank’s official email address, it appears to be completely safe. The email also alerts you to unusual activity in your account and provides a phone number for you to call to resolve the issue.

In this week’s scam, you receive an unexpected text message from an unknown number. The text seems harmless at first, with a message like “Hey, how are you?” or “Are you coming to the BBQ later?” If you reply to the message, the sender will start a friendly conversation.

This week’s scam involves a business email compromise, or BEC, attack, where cybercriminals access a real business email address and use it to send malicious emails. You receive an email that looks like a simple file-sharing notification, with an attachment that seems to be a PDF document. The email even comes from a legitimate business email address. Because it looks like the email is from a trusted source, you might be tempted to open it.

In this week’s scam, cybercriminals are using a clever trick that makes their phishing emails seem more real than ever. You receive an email from a real PayPal email address. The email contains an invoice for a large purchase you did not make, and a phone number for you to call if you want to dispute the charge. Even though the email comes from a real PayPal email address, this is actually a scam.

Cybercriminals are targeting taxpayers in the state of California by sending text messages that look like they’re from the Franchise Tax Board (FTB), a state tax agency. The message claims your tax refund has been approved and instructs you to select a link to enter your payment information. There is a very strict deadline, and the instructions state that you will lose your tax refund if you do not enter your payment information quickly.