Don't Let Spammers Darken the Festival of Lights

Discounts and special offers decorate the walls of every Indian shop and online shopping websites as many prepare to celebrate Diwali, also known to some as Deepavali, this Friday, 5 November 2010. Traditionally, it is an auspicious time ‘to buy’ and ‘to spend’ and spammers do not blink twice in exploiting such revelry.

Symantec Security Response has been observing considerable spam volume exploiting this popular Indian festival. One of the spam categories used by spammers is a ‘fake product offer’ promoting various products at discounted price, where the URL redirects the user to a spam web page that asks for personal data and sensitive banking information.

Another trick employed by spammers is the use of ‘419 scams’ where users receive e-mail from big brands claiming that the user’s email has been selected for a Diwali draw and that an exorbitant amount has been won. Beware of such false claims!

While wishing everybody health, wealth, and prosperity this Diwali, Symantec would also like to advise its readers to be cautious about prowling spammers by following these tips:

Be selective about the web sites where you register your email address.
Avoid publishing your email address on the internet. Consider alternate options – for example, use a separate address when signing up for mailing lists, get multiple addresses for multiple purposes or look into disposable address services.
Delete all spam.
Avoid clicking on suspicious links in email or IM messages as these may be links to spoofed websites. We suggest typing web addresses directly in to the browser rather than relying upon links within your messages.

For more details on the above, please visit http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/don-t-let-spammers-darken-your-light-festival