BBB Warns of Scam Emails That Could Put Your Information at Risk

JACKSON, Tennessee. Best Business Bureau There’s a new scam alert that consumers, businesses and companies should be aware of.

According to the Better Business Bureau, nearly 45% of spam emails are sent from Russia and mainland China, and about 11% are sent from the United States.

“Using these emails to trick people into revealing personal information or clicking on malicious links that take control of your computer,” said Todnetta Trice, public affairs specialist for the BBB.

These emails may have links attached to them, inviting users to click a link to resolve a problem or receive a sum of money.

“Your bank account information or credit card information, debit card information, scammers will get it. We’ve had cases where big businesses have fallen prey to this,” Trice said.

Since most of these emails come from foreign-speaking countries, there are ways to avoid this scam.

“The advice we give to some people is to again look for grammatical errors or spelling — strange-sounding phrases,” Trice said.

Some banks may use email as a way to report problems with your account, but you get tired of these emails.

“Always double check when you receive emails saying there is a problem with your payment. Make sure it’s a legitimate source and some other common message, such as “You are eligible for a government grant, click the link to make a payment.” Or confirm some personal or financial information,” Trice said.

Most importantly, report these scam emails.

“Never respond to an email with personal information, always, always report the email. Please mark this as spam and report it as phishing. I know Gmail allows you to report it as phishing, and then you can also forward phishing emails to the Federal Trade Commission,” Trice said.

Another tip is to contact the company directly or delete the email immediately.

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