A new batch of phishing emails, supposedly from TigerDirect.com, went out this week. Using social engineering to make you think that a costly order has been placed in your name, the email seeks to create a sense of urgency that will cause you to click on the links contained in the email, which of course go to the phishing site.

Want to learn how to bust a dating site scammer? There are 3 steps to detecting a scammer on an online dating site (after going through the steps, we will show you a step-by-step real-life example).

If you get an email saying that your password on Pinterest was successfully changed, and you know that you didn’t change your Pinterest password, don’t go running to Pinterest, and definitely don’t click any links, before reading this!

Ah yes, email scammers certainly love Facebook, because they know that Facebook users have become like trained monkeys, always clicking on any link to see who has said what about them. This latest scam, which takes you to a site in Russia, draws you in by saying that someone commented on your photo (in our example, it says “Blake Jones commented on your photo”).

There has been a rash of fake notices this week, supposedly from Apple, warning that “Your Apple ID was used to sign in to FaceTime, iCloud, and iMessage on an iPhone 5”. Hopefully, if you received one of these, you were quickly able to realize that these fake Apple alerts were spam, but just in case you weren’t sure, we are confirming that for you.

Over the holidays many people seem to have either gotten notices of the Fraley vs Facebook settlement, or Fraley versus Facebook has otherwise been brought to their attention. Many people are wondering whether Fraley vs Facebook is a hoax, or hoping to find that Fraley v. Facebook is legit. Well, we’re here to tell you that it’s legit. Read on.

If you, like many, have been using Amazon.com for some of your Christmas shopping, then your account may be vulnerable to a scam using your order number that is genius in its execution, and uncovers some of Amazon’s failings in inventory control. It all comes down to the individual order numbers assigned to your orders. Those order numbers are for sale, along with the corresponding email address (as in your email address), and scam artists are using that information to get duplicates of your orders sent to them.

A new eFax scam email that has just been sent out, telling you that you have a new eFax message, actually links to a malicious site being hosted at places such as http://kaskada.tym.cz and https://web.archive.org/web/20181227145952/http://isolearn.eu/. The full links, in our examples https://www.theinternetpatrol.com/brick-wall/ and https://www.theinternetpatrol.com/brick-wall/, we believe cause a malicious virus, trojan, or other software to download to your computer (although we have not confirmed this, our own tests suggest this – regardless, it is spam, and a scam, and the links that supposedly go to eFax actually all go to places such as https://www.theinternetpatrol.com/brick-wall/ and https://www.theinternetpatrol.com/brick-wall/.

Scammers are targeting Internet users with a new Craigslist scam – well, really more of a Craiglist spoof – wherein they send email to you, mostly from ‘robot@craigslist.org’, telling you that “you have succesfully posted your Craigslist ad” (although the samples we have seen actually misspell several words, so it ends up looking like “You have successfuly posted your Craiglist.org ad”).

A rash of fake Verizon Wireless account notifications hit the Internet this week, showing outrageous charges that are, supposely, hitting your bill. They have the subject line of either “Thank You for your Verizon Wireless Payment” or “Your Bill Is Now Available”. Of course, the links take you to all sorts of spam and scam sites, so don’t be taken in. Here are some examples of the fake notices, with links to places such as https://www.theinternetpatrol.com/brick-wall/, https://www.theinternetpatrol.com/brick-wall/ and http://www.mayphe.com.br/DyXEBK63/index.html.

“TWITTER: Someone has a crush on you!” the subject of the email says as it announces that someone has a Tweetcrush on you. “You have been sent a Twitter Crush,” it goes on to say. Bologna. It’s a phishing scam, pure and simple. But, it’s a pretty compelling one, given how ‘authentic’ the site, which is hosted at ktwitteri.com, looks, where they steal your Twitter username and password.

If you get an email telling you that “your Facebook account has been disabled by an administrator”, don’t fall for it! It’s a scam, and the link in the email goes not to Facebook, but to yet another Canadian pharmacy site selling male enhancement drugs.

Earlier this year we wrote and warned you about the ConsumerWarningsReport360.com scam, which is run, among other places, on Craigslist. This is a “make money fast” type scam, and they lure victims in with fake Craigslist ‘for sale’ postings, then tell you the item is already sold, and they feel so badly, they are going to share this great “make money” scheme with you. Since we exposed the scam, someone has caused people to post comments to the article extolling the virtues of ConsumerWarningsReport360.com – clearly these people are paid, and it is part of the scam.

“Your account protection status: low” screams the alert on Facebook. “Increase protection” it offers. Is it a scam? A virus? Or is it really Facebook giving you a warning? It turns out that the warning really is from Facebook, but it’s not nearly as urgent as they would lead you to believe.

This particular Craigslist housing scam offers a house for a rent that is so low that it is too good to be true – you just have to first fill out a request for a “free credit report” at cbireport.com. The response to inquiries is canned and, in fact, has been around for a while – in our region the scam was listed under the heading “$850 / 3br – Beautiful 3 Bed, 2 Bath House”. Our sample came from “gipepazalih@hotmail.com”, but it has come from other email addresses too.