Phishing: Beware of malicious sites that steal your personal data

PINTEREST

DALY CITY, California — “Two in five U.S. consumers have fallen victim to an online phishing attack,” according to a 2017 Cyber Monday Phishing Survey conducted by DomainTools, a Seattle-based company that helps security analysts turn security data into threat intelligence to prevent cyberattacks.

To make things worse, as USA Today reported from DomainTools studies, that there will be many more victims even if 91% of consumers are aware that online crooks create spoof websites or send phishing emails that impersonate trusted, big-name retailers or brands.

As holiday online buying activities continue to break records, ABS-CBN International issued a warning to anyone interested in Filipino news and entertainment content that its anti-piracy efforts are finding more malware and phishing sites showing up on Google.

“To be clear, websites that appear to offer ABS-CBN TV shows and movies for free on the web other than authorized sites like TFC.tv outside of the Philippines are sites that are really attempting to grab user private information such as passwords, banking information, home address and the like,” said ABS-CBN AVP, General Counsel & Head of Global Anti-Piracy and Content Security Elisha Lawrence.

Lawrence specifically cited several malicious websites: Thingverse.com, a malware spam site that advertises the most current ABS-CBN TV episodes on Google to lure people to click on the site; Storia.me and Crowdrise.com, which advertise daily ABS-CBN TV episodes but in fact are phishing sites created to grab user information.

Lawrence reminded the public to stay away from all sites advertising complete episodes of ABS-CBN TV shows and full features films online other than authorized sites like TFC.tv, ABS-CBN’s official accounts on video-sharing websites or social media or reputable subscription video-on-demand services.

“Be wary of other sites offering the content for free,” Lawrence warned.  “Don’t pay the high price of losing your key private personal information to online criminals over a malicious free offer that seems too good to be true.  Remain vigilant to avoid identity theft or financial loss.”