Phoney Invoices

I do not like being warey of my email but it has come to that. I have been getting emails, supposedly from Intuit, that are invoices. I do have an account with Intuit but I am not subscribed to any of their services. Yet, here is an invoice.

I can see how this would be an effective scam, especially for a larger company. How can I know for sure this is a scam? I hover over the link and in the status bar below the email it tells me where the link will send me.

How I know this is a scam:

1. It is not going to Intuit
2. It is not a secure connection, not https
3. It looks like a WordPress site is hacked (wp-content/themes).  This links take you to a theme on a WordPress site.

Always pay attention to any links in your emails.  We cannot be too busy to be diligent, it can cost us time and money in the long run.

Domain Registrations

There are companies that inform you of a pending domain expiration to steal the account. Know your Registrar. Legitimate registrars like GoDaddy, Host Gator, and Network Solutions will not try to con you into renewing your domain with them. When you get a domain name renewal make sure it is with the company that currently handles your domain. You may get a "Domain Name Expiration Notice" from "Domain Registry" or "Domains Listings", if they are not your registrar they are attempting to get you to register your domain with them. Sending them money and giving them your email address will authorize them to move your domain name. Often times they charge much more than your current registrar.  Contact your website designer if you have any concerns.

Some registrars offer protection for you domain so it cannot be stolen. Your domain is protected to a certain degree, any transfer must be confirmed by the current owner of the domain.

Periodic Report Filing

While this is not necessarily an IT issue it does concern your business.  I recevieved a notice that looks quite official. The purpose of the document was to file the Periodic Report required by the state you live in. They wanted to charge $110 to file this for my business. It costs $10 for me to do it online with the state of Colorado.

This document did look quite official. Often time we are in a hurry and just pay the fee. But we must be diligent.

UNUSUAL SIGN-IN ACTIVITY?

Have you rec‍eived a notice from Microsoft that there was unusual sign-in activity on your account?‍

I just received a message but I was wary so I did some checking to see if it was valid.

How to check:

• DON'T CLICK ON ANY LINKS!
• Hold you curser over any link in the message and read the address in the status bar at the bottom of your email program. If it doesn't come from Microsoft  it is a scam. In this case it was not from microsoft.com it was from dns.army 
• In the message details is there mispellings or bad grammer? That is also suspicious.

Just to make sure your account in question is still in good order login to your account at the company's own login page that you have entered into the address bar or bookmarked. DON'T CLICK A LINK IN THE MESSAGE. In this case I went to Microsoft.com and logged in to make sure my account was in good order.

Always be diligent regarding your information.