Yesterday, we warned you about the nearly 10,000 passwords that were stolen and posted online by cybercriminals. Further information indicates that these passwords were stolen via a fake Hotmail website, identical to the real thing. This phishing scam tricked users into entering their email address and password. Twenty-four hours later a similar list of thousands of Google Gmail, AOL, Yahoo Mail, Comcast and Earthlink accounts were revealed as well.
Scams like these are becoming more and more common. As PC and internet users we have just a few choices. We can avoid using the internet completely (not likely) or arm ourselves with the right tools to prevent malware attacks, spyware trickery, phishing scams, etc. In the case of the Hotmail passwords, a simple anti-virus or spyware program would NOT have prevented the crime. No software was installed and these programs would not have sent up any flares to warn us of the potential danger. That’s why we need a program like My Web of Trust (WOT).
