personal security
2 articles with this tag
Spam that appears to come from your own address is almost always a forged sender — check three places to know if you were hacked
Most spam that arrives 'from' your own address is a forged sender field; your account was never touched. Japan's IPA and JC3 have both warned about extortion emails dressed up this way, and IPA says its help desk has not seen a single case of footage actually being released. This site's view: the sender field is self-declared. Before you panic, spend five minutes on three places — Sent, sign-in history, forwarding rules. And if the email quotes a password you still use, change it today.
'Your PC is infected' warnings are almost always fake — how to close them, and what to do if you already called
A browser page shouting 'your computer is infected' with a phone number is a tech support scam. Japan's IPA says that if the screen merely appeared, the PC is not infected and closing it is enough, and that most victims get hurt because they couldn't close it and called. This site's view: the goal of the fake warning is not infection — it is getting you to call. Genuine security features never show a phone number. If you can close it, you're done; if it went further, act on the stage you reached.