A Short Tip About Spam Email

Last week the world's largest "permissions-based" email marketing company, Epsilon, was hacked into and names and email addresses were stolen.

What does this mean to you?
First of all you should understand what "permissions-based" means. Epsilon is a company that collects names and email addresses that you the customer have given certain companies permission to use. Some of these companies include: US Bank, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Best Buy, Kroger, TiVo, and Walgreen’s. Epsilon represents as many as 2,500 different businesses. If you are a customer of any of these companies and you provided them with your email, then you you might be affected. 


Now what harm can this do to you?
Hackers will not be able to directly harm you with this information that they have stolen. What they can do is get to you cleverly with your email address. They can send you a carefully crafted email targeted just for you to try to get more personal information from you. This is called "phishing". You could receive several emails that appear to come from the company where they stole your email address to begin with. For instance; lets say that I am a customer of Best Buy and I have willingly given them my email for a warranty on something I bought from them. A hacker then sends me an email that might not be marked as spam and looks like it really is from Best Buy. In this email they inform me that my account needs updating. They might ask me to log in and provide my Social Security number or even my debit/credit card information. Once I do this, they have me. I have given them information that they can use to charge things to my account or to steal my identity. 
"Phishing" emails can also get you to unknowingly install a harmful virus onto your computer that can send out any personal information on your computer. They can also install what is called a "key logger" which can record everything you type on your computer, including credit card numbers, etc. 


What you need to know.
A legitimate company will never ask you to provide personal information through an email. Chances are the company already has any information they need from you. If they need to know something they will contact you in a safer way. Never open an email that looks suspicious. Be cautious and skeptical. Do not reply to the email. Never send any personal information through an email to someone you are not one hundred percent sure about. 


Be sure to stop by the library for more information about spam email and how to recognize and avoid it. One of the best ways to stop this is to educate everyone about it. Even if that is one person at a time. 


Brad - OCPL