We talked yesterday about scams that hit the vanity button of a business – today we’re looking at scams directly target the vanity of business executives. As ever, a little flattery goes a long way!
The “Top 100 Executives” scam tricks executives into providing their personal information under the guise of compiling a list of the most distinguished men and women in business. This scam comes to executives via email and it’ll be from some form of fake publication (most often called the “Top 100 Executives Magazine of 2013” or something related to it) that sounds close enough to be legitimate but really isn’t. Also, they’ll give a sense of urgency such as announcing that they have previously tried to contact the person and that this is their ‘final notice’. That way, the person doesn’t take too much time to think about the legitimacy of the email and hurries up to provide the information – once more appealing to their vanity.
The email will contain a link to a registration form on their website and the form will ask for a whole lot of personal information (such as your position, business number, mobile phone number, home number, company name, etc), and once the information is entered and sent, it reaches cybercriminals who use it to commit identity theft, or even to use that information to create fake emails from you.
This can be particularly harmful as these hackers will use the information to break into organizations – and they have, causing great damage.
To avoid getting caught up in frauds such as this, the rules are simple and just as we have been talking about so far with the other scams: don’t be fooled. Don’t click on links embedded in emails from people you don’t know; use a tough anti-virus, anti-phishing program, and most important of all: don’t be swayed by the ego play.
Always make sure that you make an informed decision in all cases,
All the Best,
Capital Corp Merchant Banking 