Do you or your employees get “Deal of the Day” emails from one of the major daily deal sites? If so, be on the lookout for the latest malware scam, because this one imitates an email from Groupon. The email has an attachment that contains a Trojan which will infect computers running Windows. How can you be prepared for this email scam (other than having your anti-malware software up-to-date)? Here’s a few things to watch out for:
1. Misspellings – The first tip-off about this Groupon email scam is the subject, which contains the misspelled “Groupon dicount gifts”. Later, the recipient is encouraged to open the “attachement”.
2. Poor grammar – The email contains repeated uses of poor grammar and punctuation, fragmented sentences. Groupon makes a lot of money on these emails, they are not going to let them go out unchecked.
3. Misdirected links – If you are ever unsure about an email, hover your mouse over a link or an image. Most email programs will show you where the link really goes, either in a pop-up or in a taskbar. If the extension does not look right, don’t click it. Hint: look for bad top level domains such as .de or .fr, or a shortened link such as bit.ly or goo.gl.
4. Attached files – Groupon wants to get information in front of as many eyeballs as possible, so they aren’t going to bury important information in an attachment. Emails that put pressure on you to open an attachment (“All the details in the file attached. be in a hurry”) should be a red flag.
Be on the lookout for this scam email, and be sure you are protecting your computers with our top-ranked Internet security software!
Tags: email, Internet Security, malware, PC, Windows
