Monthly archive for February 2021

Your e-mail inbox is overloaded – advertisements from retailers you shop with, newsletters from organizations you support, and a whole lot of spam that you don’t want and don’t plan to read. But it just takes time to go through all of this.

Should you click on the unsubscribe links? Or is that just asking for trouble?

“If you click on an unsubscribe link and it doesn’t just go, ‘you’re unsubscribed,’ but it goes, ‘now you need to put in your email address and your password,’ keep your wits about you, and don’t get phished,” Ducklin cautioned. “Obviously these are people who are not spamming you, they’re using the unsubscribe as a hook to try to get your password which is a risk that did not exist in the early days of spam.”

---

Scammers are getting craftier with their pitches by using new technology to steal your information and money. Believe it or not, most Washington consumers don’t report robocalls or fraud attempts. However, you should report any attempted scams, says Chuck Hardwood, Regional Director of the Federal Trade Commission.

Even if you don’t fall for a fraudsters tricks, it’s still helpful to report the situation because this crucial information can help authorities. Every story is important to them. Report scams to the Federal Trade Commission at www.ftc.gov/complaint, or with the State Attorney General’s Office at www.atg.wa.gov/file-complaint or toll-free at 877-382-4357.

---