Email Lists Hooked – Phishing Warnings Abound

Apr 04, 2011

Epsilon, an advertising company that handles emailing clients of many large companies, had a bit of a problem over the weekend with email lists falling into the wrong hands.  Somehow these massive lists were stolen, prompting a string of warning messages from the affected corporations.  The affected companies include many banks such as  Capital One ,  U.S. Bank , Citi, Chase, retailers  Best Buy ,  TiVo , Walgreen, Kroger, and others.  I also received warning letters from  Walt Disney’s travel branch and  Ameriprise Financial over the weekend.  Epsilon announced on Friday that its system had been compromised, reporting lists of customer emails and names were released to unauthorized parties, but no personal information was included in these lists.

 Email addresses that are matched to company client lists can mean a wave of targeted phishing is on the way.  Phishing, pronounced “fishing” for those that don’t know, is an email message that tries to trick you into sending personal information, usually for criminal purposes.  Right now scam artists can only send out random emails saying things like-  Your bank account password needs to be changed to meet NCA342.34 standards.  Please reply to this email with the following information:

 Routing number:__________
  Account Number: __________
  Username: ___________
  Current Password: ____________
  New Password: _____________

Etc….

 Not many people would fall for this, but if an email with the label  “Mr. Jones, your Best Buy Account needs  to be updated, please reply with the following information…” came in, readers may be a bit more apt to fall for the trick due to the personalization.

While the tech savvy community is very unlikely to simply email account information to a random email address, novice and elderly email users are usually the main victims simply from not knowing any better.  Protect yourself and those you know by adhering to these simple tips:

  1. Be leery of any email requesting username, password, or account information.  Ask yourself “Why would a company ask for this information when they should already have it?” Call the institution if you’re not sure.
  2. Watch for misspellings, poor grammar, or nonsensical language.  Phishing scammers tend to come from locations where English is not the primary language.
  3. Watch for misspellings in the email address of the sender.  For example:  an email from accounts@mybank.com may be legit, but accounts@mybOnk.com would not.
  4. Be careful using links in emails.  They can be formatted to they point to a different location than what is indicated. For example, if you click on  www.cnn.com , you’ll go to our TOAST.net homepage.
  5. Use the latest version of your web browser.  Most modern web browsers have phishing protection that will stop you from reaching fraudulent sites.

 

For more tips on how to keep yourself safe out there in the big, scary Internet world, check out TOAST.net’s  5 Steps for Safe Computing .  It helps get rid of the “scary” part.

 

New Business Broadband Plans!

By Mike Pawlecki • 31 Mar, 2021
TOAST.net is excited to offer 4 new Business Broadband plans

New Fiber for Business Plans!

By Mike Pawlecki • 11 Mar, 2021
TOAST.net is excited to announce 3 new Business Fiber Plans

New Residential Fiber Plans!

By Mike Pawlecki • 12 Jan, 2021
TOAST.net has added two new residential Fiber Internet plans!

Switch to Universal Pricing

By Mike Pawlecki • 14 Aug, 2020
This coming Monday, Aug. 17th, we will be switching to universal pricing -- one price for all DSL speeds (around $65) and one price for Fiber (around $90). So if anyone is thinking they could use one of our basic service plans, now's the time to order. For example:  DSL - 12 Mbps for $43.95/month - Great for seniors on a fixed income. Plenty of speed for surfing the web, checking email, and streaming for 1 or 2 TVs. Fiber - 60 Mbps for $45.00/month - Awesome solution for just about any household. Note that fiber is a new technology and only about 20% of the country can get it.  Check your address to see what service you qualify for and order by Sunday, 8/16/20! This is your last chance to lock in the speed and price of a great DSL or Fiber plan before they are grandfathered! 
Google Meet for your home or office.

Google Meet

By Mike Pawlecki • 20 May, 2020
Google Meet is now free for everyone. Check out TOAST.net's blog that tells you more about Google Meet usage at your home or office.

Work from Home (part 2)

By Mike Pawlecki • 01 May, 2020
Google - Meet Meet is video conference software, similar to Zoom. To help businesses, schools, and people around the world navigate remote life, Google is making Meet free for everyone with availability rolling out over the coming weeks. See Google's blog post for details. SolarWinds - Take Control You may need to run applications off your PC or server at the office. In that case, SolarWinds makes makes an easy-to-use application that allows home users to remote desktop to their PC in the office. It's secure and doesn't require special hardware, a static IP, or VPN. We're offering this software free of charge for 90 days. Please contact us if interested.

Work from Home

By Mike Pawlecki • 20 Mar, 2020
This week we've taken quite a few calls from companies asking how their employees and staff can work from home (WFH). We're happy to offer several WFH solutions to help organizations mitigate health risks to employees and customers. TOAST.net understands how important it is to keep your employees connected, productive, and safe during this unprecedented pandemic. Here are the services we have to help your business through this difficult time : Business Portal is a 'home page' for your browser that improves communication and efficiencies within your organization. It's a private Intranet that features company news, announcements, links to vendors and cloud apps, an employee schedule, and more! We offer this at no charge to our customers. Visit https://start.toast.net Google's G Suite - TOAST.net is an authorized reseller of G Suite, a cloud-based collaboration tool featuring Email, Calendar, Chat, Hangouts (video conferencing), and Drive. You can create files, documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with just your browser (no software to install) and share these with fellow workers, customers, and vendors. More info Remote Desktop - an easy-to-use application that allows home users to connect to PCs in the office. It's secure and doesn't require special hardware or a static IP. We're offering this free of charge for 90 days. High-speed Internet for Home - We provide residential Cable, DSL, and Fiber Internet service . So you can pay for your employee's Internet connection on your business invoice. Please contact us if you're interested in any of these services. B est wishes to everyone to stay healthy, safe, and upbeat as we socially distance ourselves for a quick end to this situation. Note: Our customer support team continues to work their regular hours. We operate support teams in multiple locations and, while there may be some disruption at certain locations for a limited time, overall we do not expect any significant change in access to support.

Cut The Cord With Unlimited Data

By TOAST.net Internet • 28 Jan, 2019
In the month after Christmas, we’ve seen a high demand for our Internet service with unlimited data. Much of it is from people wanting to use their new streaming device (Fire Stick, Roku, Chromecast, Apple TV, etc.) to cancel their expensive cable TV service. This is commonly referred to as “cutting the cord.”

Fiber Expansion

By TOAST.net Internet • 17 Dec, 2018
TOAST.net is pleased to announce fiber Internet service in 12 new metro areas:

Start Page Updates

By TOAST.net Internet • 12 Dec, 2018
Moved Facebook link from top bar to the Popular Sites section. Added Yahoo Finance to the Personal Finance section. Yahoo Finance is one of the largest business news web sites in the United States by monthly traffic.
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