Phishing Attack Targets Merchant Accounts
The point of many phishing scams is to gain access to bank or credit account information for financial gain. So, it makes sense to target users or accounts with the highest odds of containing substantial amounts of money. That explains a new phishing attack reported by AppRiver which takes aim at customers of Global Payments.
Similar Articles:
More than E-mail at Stake in Google Gmail Attack
4 Security Tips Spurred by Recent Phishing Attacks on Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo
LizaMoon Attack: What You Need To Know
Reports: 77 Million PlayStation Network Accounts Compromised
Hotmail Accounts Breached by Suspected Phishing Attack
Text Message of 'Death' Threatens Phone Security
Many phishing attacks simply cast as wide a net as possible and hope that at least some of the victims snared by the scam have funds to make it worthwhile. By specifically targeting a merchant services company--a provider that processes credit card payments for retail establishments--the attackers greatly enhance the chances that any compromised accounts will actually have money available--perhaps a lot of money.
Fred Touchette, a senior security analyst with AppRiver, explains in a blog post, "Global Payments is a company that handles merchant services for all sorts of businesses such as restaurants, retail stores, hotels, hospitals, you name it. Basically their service can be used by anyone that needs to process credit card transactions."
The best protection from phishing scams is a combination of common sense and healthy skepticism.Touchette describes how the phishing attack works as well. "These attacks arrive in email form, as is often the case, pretending to be from Global Payments, stating the usual "Your account has been blocked due to unusual activity". As is also usual, the email asks the recipients to click on the link provided and log-in to their accounts to correct the situation. Once victims provide the false sites with their credentials, they then give the attackers full access to their accounts."
As Touchette alludes to in the blog post, the targeting of a merchant services processor is particularly concerning for two reasons. First, for the business that uses Global Payments and falls unwitting victim to this attack, it means that funds could be redirected or stolen.
More importantly, though, a successful compromise from this phishing scam provides the attackers with the information necessary to access the merchant services account, and possibly much more sensitive data. Touchette says, "This attack carries a much larger weight than an attack against an individual as access to merchant processing accounts could lead to the breach of information and transaction details of all of the credit card holders that had done business with the Global Payments account holder. This could also lead to a major dent in the reputation of the company who was phished as the breach was disclosed."
As always--you should have security tools to protect your system, but avoiding phishing scams is part common sense and part cautious skepticism. Could your account be blocked due to suspicious activity? Absolutely. And, I would hope that a company like Global Payments would do just that--as quickly as possible--if, in fact, unusual account activity was detected.
However, in the event that such a thing actually occurs, a company like Global Payments will not ask you to click on a link in an e-mail and share or change your account credentials. Do not open file attachments or click on URLs in e-mail messages unless you are 110% sure you know what awaits you. If you are concerned that the phishing message might be legitimate, pick up the phone and call the customer service department to clarify.
Blog Archive
-
▼
2011
(23)
-
▼
June
(9)
- Phishing Attack Targets Merchant AccountsThe point...
- Merchant AccountsAlthough small businesses have hi...
- Buy New Iraqi Dinars and Put Them in a DrawerI hav...
- Buy Iraqi DinarsArticle Summary: Dinartrade has be...
- Buy New Iraqi DinarIf you’re interested in buying ...
- Iraqi Dinar For SaleBAGHDAD — In drawers and footl...
- Buy Iraqi Dinar What inspires us to save more and ...
- When will iraqi dinar revalue?No one can say for s...
- Iraqi Dinar Is it a Good Investment?Introduced in ...
-
▼
June
(9)
Text Cash Network New Style Of Income
What can the Text Cash Network do for you? We all have cellphones, even children. We all have cellphone bills that we pay each month. Sometimes we pay our cellphone bill before we pay our utilities. Everytime we pick up and use the telephone someone is getting paid. Everytime we place a text or use an app someone is getting paid. How would you like to be able to get a piece of that money being made. It is finally possible.
If you could have any job in the world what would you do? If you had all the money and time you ever wanted, what would you do? If you had one year to live, what would you do different this week and this month? If I could show you a proven system that is legal, moral and ethnic where you could accomplish your dreams and goals in 2-3 years would you do it?
Did you know that over 1 trillion dollars has been spent on cell phone infrastructure. There over 5 billion cell phones world-wide with over 86% of Americans owning one. There are over 100 Million frequent text users and 93% of all text messages are opened. To make those numbers even more astounshing over 80% of texts are opened within 1 Hour. Over 2.5 Trillion text messages sent Last Year. Over 100,000 Text are sent every Second.
Text Cash Network will follow in the steps of Groupon & Living Social and plan to dominate The TEXT TO SAVE MARKET PLACE. Living Social when they reached 16 million members raised $175 million dollars from Amazon and has since grown to 46 Million Members. Groupon with 44 million turned down $6 billion dollars from Google and has since grown to over 80 Million Members. The industry is estimated at $133 billion dollars that local business spend each year on advertising just in The USA.
T.C.N. is one of the first in the industry to go after The TEXT TO SAVE MARKET PLACE estimated to be The NEXT BIG Format in USA Business Advertising. Members motivated by the T.C.N. Pay Plan will generate millions in commissions via a 10 level Referral Plan with a 100% Matching Bonus. Members will derive income from text messages received from their network, business and personal ads placed by advertisers and by corporate accounts received by T.C.N. in House Sales Representatives.
1. Register for 100% FREE Click here!
Register at the T.C.N. Website of the person who referred you. Receive your 100% Free T.C.N. Referral & Benefits Website. It includes revenue sharing software that will list every single. T.C.N. Affiliate/Member within your 10 Referral Levels for Benefits and Revenue Sharing.
2. Receive Text Messages
To receive T.C.N. Benefits and Revenue Sharing you will need to agree to receive up to 5 text messages daily. You can control the time of day you receive such messages. You can pause or stop such text messages at anytime.
3. Help Get The Word Out
Text Cash Network has set up in your back office a simple system to help T.C.N. get the word out about their FREE Services & Benefits for Affiliates and Members. Maximum time needed to follow the Get The Word Out System is 5 Minutes… Many can do it in less than 3 Minutes. This will also help you to build your personal referral team. This is simpler than having 2 or 3 friends on Facebook. In fact you should post your URL for your T.C.N. Website on your Facebook Page ASAP.
4. Earn Revenue Sharing.
Text Cash Network shares it’s text revenue with it’s T.C.N. Affiliates and Membership Base using a 10 Level Referral Reward System. T.C.N. will pay up to $1.50 monthly per member, up to 10 Levels of Referrals, who agree to receive 1 to 5 T.C.N. Texts Daily. It is simple to do the math to estimate Revenue Sharing. Here are two mathematical examples of maximum revenue sharing. A 2×10 Referral Structure Pays A Maximum Earnings of $76.75 Per Day or $2,302.50 Per Month plus Matching Bonuses. A 3×10 Maximum Earnings = To High Of A Dollar Figure To Put In Print. Remember there is no limit to the number of people/members/affiliates you can refer to T.C.N.
5. Enjoy and Share the Fruits of Your Labor!
Posted by : Product Seller, Product Reviews on | |