New internet scam

Here is the latest internet scam.  Are you a trusting person?  Do you read the obituaries?  Do you sometime worry about friends or family member dying because they have cancer or some other health problems?  Then this latest internet home scam may fool and add viruses to your computer.  It could steal any financial information on your computer.  It comes as disquised as an email from a funeral home  

It looks legitimate but it can unload many viruses and spyware onto to your computer.  The subject line “Passing Of Your Friend.”  Of course you will want to open that.

The first thing to remember is that funeral homes do not have your email address.  None of your friends is going to give out a list of their friends emails.  They do not have the time to do that during the time of death.  You may get an email about somebody dying but it will be from a friend, not a funeral home so remember that.  NEVER OPEN A LINK IN A EMAIL FROM SOMEBODY YOU DO NOT KNOW.

The SCAM email came from a sender claiming to be a funeral home.  It usually comes up Eubank Funeral Home, but it may come up in another funeral homes name.  The email said they wanted me to contact them about someone that I knew that passed away,” he said.

The email will have legitimate appearing letterhead and the sender offered prayers and condolences. It looks like what a funeral home would do. The message invited John to attend a celebration of his friend’s life and prompted him to click on a link. DON'T DO IT.  LOOK UP THE NAME OF THE FUNERAL HOME ON THE INTERNET or in the yellow pages.  Call or email them to find out who died.

Do not open the link on the email until you do this.  You will find out that there is no such funeral home or that they have none of your friends at their home.  The email is just part of a scam that could have exposed your computer to viruses and spyware that could potentially reveal personal information like social security numbers and credit card information.

The Federal Trade Commission and many attorney generals are recently sending out a scam alert warning consumers about the seriousness of this email.

“What the scammers do is they send thousands, possibly millions of emails to people and hope to catch some that are actually experiencing a situation with a friend or relative where they’re concerned about their health,” FTC spokesman Nat Wood explained.

Everybody wants to trust their funeral directors or funeral homes.  Nobody would expect a funeral home to send a virus to your computer.  But there people are not funeral homes.  They are scammers.  These scammers are breaching by taking advantage of an avenue that we’d never use,” he said.

The FTC and Better Business Bureau are urging consumers to delete the email if they receiver it and to avoid clicking on links unless they know the sender and what they are sending.   It is so new some anti virus protection software is not protecting your computer. 

I hope this new internet scam warning keeps your computer safe.  When you go to buy your next Metro Detroit home give me a call on my cell (313) 310-9855.  We work to protect our clients, after all your home is most likely the biggest financial investment you will make in your lifetime.  So whether you are buying a lakefront home for sale on Woodland Lake in Brighton or a home for sale Milford Michigan.