iconixtruemark – Page 18

Is That Email Real?

How hard it is to tell a real email from a fake email? It is real hard, as the recent confusion at the popular site WOW Insider demonstrated. Over the last several days, Blizzard, the publisher of leading games such as World of Warcraft, Diablo and Starcraft, responded to a security problem by sending a password reset email to users. On December 14, WOW Insider, a popular Warcraft blog and information site, warned the WOW community that the password reset email was a phishing attack. On December 15, WOW Insider retracted the phishing story and advised the WOW community that [...]

iconixtruemark2017-01-07T17:35:29-05:00December 17th, 2010|Consumers and Email, Iconix Truemark Service, Phishing|

2010: The Year of the Phish

Two internet security companies have released reports about phishing. As you probably know if you follow Iconix, phishing is on-line fraud which is perpetrated by the impersonation of legitimate email senders. Symantec reported that one of the top trends in 2010 was the extent of phishing. Symantec estimated that projected approximately 95.1 billion phishing emails for 2010. Webroot reported that according to the FDIC phishing losses for small companies were $25 million in the third quarter alone. Webroot recommends four steps to take to protect against phishing: Install web security Install pop-up blockers Educate, Educate, Educate to learn the signs [...]

iconixtruemark2017-01-07T17:35:29-05:00December 10th, 2010|Iconix Truemark Service, Phishing|

Phishing – It’s Not Just Targeting Consumers

When we think of phishing, we immediately think of the fake emails sent to consumers that pretend to be from trusted senders, such as PayPal, eBay, banks and insurance companies. Consider the essence of a phishing attack – it is a fake email that masquerades as something the recipient wants. In the consumer arena, that could be a special offer, your bank statement or the status of your insurance claim. WikiLeaks has revealed that consumers aren’t the only targets of fake emails designed to steal credentials or infect computers. In State Department documents leaked by WikiLeaks as reported in the [...]

iconixtruemark2017-01-07T17:35:29-05:00December 6th, 2010|Iconix Truemark Service, Phishing|

Phishing – You Need To Protect Yourself!

A key element in the fight against phishing is taking down the websites of criminals. How long does this take? It takes about 60 minutes for security vendors to identify a phishing campaign. Industry leading takedown vendors, such as FraudWatch International, claim average takedown times of 6 hours. How much damage can the bad guys do in six hours? New research from Trusteer answers that question. 50% of the credentials which are stolen are stolen within the first 60 minutes. By the 7th hour (1 hour to discover, 6 hours to take down), the criminals have captured about 85% of the [...]

iconixtruemark2017-01-07T17:35:29-05:00December 4th, 2010|Iconix Truemark Service, Phishing|

Black Friday – Too Good To Be True?

Black Friday has arrived and the special offers are overflowing in my inbox. Many look too good to be true. Here are some offers in my inbox: Is there really a 50% off sale at eBay? That has to be too good to be true. Just like the 40% off at Rolex and 80% off at the WatchStore. Now, let’s look at the same inbox with eMail ID activated: The eBay sale is real! I know this because the email is marked as real by eMail ID. Without eMail ID I would not have opened that email -- [...]

iconixtruemark2017-01-07T17:35:29-05:00November 27th, 2010|Consumers and Email, Iconix Truemark Service|

Help – I Want To Find My Specials

With Thanksgiving fast approaching, our thoughts turn to family, friends and holiday shopping. I don’t know about you, but for me, shopping is both online and old-fashioned brick & mortar. No matter the shopping venue – virtual or actual – one thing is common for both: I want a good deal! Yes, I am on the mailing lists of many retailers driven by a single common purpose – good deals. While my lust to save money is not as strong as that of Erin Libranda, who was recently profiled in the Wall Street Journal, I do want my specials. I [...]

iconixtruemark2017-01-07T17:35:29-05:00November 20th, 2010|Consumers and Email, Iconix Truemark Service|

Iconix Streamlines Icons

Iconix, Inc., the industry leader in visual email solutions, announced today that it is streamlining its icons. The target release date is early December, 2010. Since December of 2005, Iconix has marked legitimate email from thousands of companies with this logo, which we call the Check-lockSM: In the inbox the presentation looks like this: Many of our users told us that when several Check-locks are present, the Check-locks are too dominant in the display. We take user comments seriously and explored alternative marking schemes which could be more subtle yet still quickly convey integrity. After testing several alternatives, [...]

iconixtruemark2017-01-07T17:35:29-05:00November 12th, 2010|Iconix Truemark Service|

When Is Spam Not Spam?

Spam filters do a pretty good job. But we all know that sometimes good stuff ends up in the spam/bulk folder. It is a good idea to check the spam folder to find good stuff that is there by mistake. But how do you actually do that? You are confronted with a screen full of stuff that you really don’t want to see. The easiest thing to do is just not look at it. But, what are you missing? eMail ID identifies stuff you want in the spam folder just like it identifies stuff in the inbox. This is my [...]

iconixtruemark2017-01-07T17:35:29-05:00November 5th, 2010|Consumers and Email, Email Marketing, Iconix Truemark Service|

Anti-Phishing Working Group Report

The Anti-Phishing Working Group (“APWG”) is worldwide watchdog organization composed of more than 1,800 companies, government agencies and solutions providers. APWG is committed to wiping out internet scams and fraud. The APWG just released their First Half 2010 Report. You can get the full report here: http://www.antiphishing.org/reports/APWG_GlobalPhishingSurvey_1H2010.pdf The report discusses the disturbing trend we reported in our October 22, 2010 IRS Warning posting. This is the trend of using fraudulent emails to trick people into infecting their own machines with malware. The APWG explains that unlike the bad old days, where the criminals took victims to fake websites to [...]

iconixtruemark2017-01-07T17:35:29-05:00October 30th, 2010|Consumers and Email, Iconix Truemark Service, Phishing|

IRS Warning – It’s a Phishing Scam

You may have received an email claiming to be from the IRS warning you about a problem with a tax payment. It may say something like, “LAST NOTICE: We decline your Federal tax payment,” followed by an ID number. Or, “LAST NOTICE: The Identification Number used in the company identification field is not valid.” Jane Bryant Quinn has written an excellent posting about this scam. You can find it here: http://moneywatch.bnet.com/investing/blog/make-money/new-irs-phishing-scam-a-criminal-gang-is-in-your-mailbox/577/ Among the points she makes is that if the IRS is really after you, they will send you a written notice using the U.S. Postal Service – they [...]

iconixtruemark2017-01-07T17:35:29-05:00October 22nd, 2010|Consumers and Email, Iconix Truemark Service, Phishing|

Visual Email Solutions

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