If you know someone who uses AOL as their email provider then you have probably received an email within the past couple of days with a link and perhaps a small snippet of text such as “…Get rich on-line…”
Oddly enough, there appears to be very little information about this AOL email scam online, but within the past two days, I’ve received five such fraudulent AOL emails. The thing that makes these fraudulent AOL emails difficult to spot is that they come from people I know.
How to spot email scams and cons
We all know to be on alert when an email comes from someone we don’t know. But, how do you spot a fake AOL email when it comes from someone you do know?
1) Check to see whether the message is personalized. Is the email about something you’ve discussed or would discuss with the sender? Does the email include your name? Was the email sent to multiple recipients?
2) Does the email contain links? Is the sole purpose of the email to get you to click on a link to a website? If the only reason for the email is to get you to click on a link, beware. This could be a phishing email designed to collect your information.
3) Where does the link go to? Examine the link. Here’s an example from one of the emails I received today. http://ilovebady. co.kr/yahoo.news.php?dykhot=13qu7. The tricky thing about this link, and what makes it appear to be valid, is the fact that it includes “yahoo.news” as part of the link. At first glance, this link looks like it’s just going to a Yahoo News story. No problem, right? Wrong. Big problem.
How to spot fake website addresses
To find the website that this link goes to, you have to start at the beginning and read to the right. Look for the first “/“ and forget about everything to the right of that. So now, we’re looking at ilovebady. co. kr. Starting to get suspicious? You should be. The domain extension is the last part after the last period. In fact, you’ve probably seldom, if ever, seen a “.kr” domain extension. Where exactly does this come from? Try South Korea.
Three tips to protect yourself from fake AOL emails
1) Always, always, always be aware of email fraud or email scams. They are rampant.
2) Never click on a link in the email if you think it might be suspicious. In this case, curiosity can kill the cat.
3) Report the email abuse to the sender so that they can report it to AOL.
