Royal Baby Scam

Royal Baby Scam

Phishers and spammers kicked into immediate action at the birth of the royal baby. While the world celebrated, scammers have taken advantage of the event. Their objective: to capitalise on people’s curiosity so as to steal sensitive information, passwords, credit card details and bank credentials.

Cybercriminals have been converting the royal news into domain names. One such example is the domain name babykingishere.pw, which was registered on July 24 by a registrant from Panama.

So far, the spam domain has pushed promotional hit-and-run spam. One of the main characteristics of this type of spam is the use of “throw away” domains which redirect traffic to other malicious sites.

Currently, Symantec is blocking such sites with IP reputation and content filtering.

Internet users should exercise caution while handling unsolicited or unexpected emails, and ensure the legitimacy of websites while surfing and transacting with them. Symantec recommends the following tips to stay safe online.

Do

Familiarise yourself with a website’s privacy policy, especially if you are asked to provide confidential and/or personal data
Be careful about opening attachments, especially from unknown senders
Install and regularly update firewall, antivirus, and anti-spyware solutions
Keep your operating system and all your applications updated with the latest security patches
Create strong passwords using eight characters or more, and a combination of letters, numbers and symbols as well as protect them carefully or consider using password protection software
Review your bank and credit card statements regularly to make sure there are no unauthorised transactions
If you think you’ve become a victim of ID theft or cybercrime, report it to the proper authorities immediately
Always use legitimate security software

Don’t

Don’t ever give out your personal information in response to an email, a website you’ve come to through an external link, or a pop-up screen that appears on a real website
Don’t respond to strange messages or click links.

ends

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