Beware of scams in the age of COVID-19

I have seen a huge uptick in scams, hacking, and other phishing tricks since our world was turned upside down by a pandemic.  I’ve had several clients reach out with lots of worries and questions.  I thought it would be worthwhile to share some of those with all of you!  Below is a list of what has been occurring at the most frequency.

I RECEIVED A BILL IN THE MAIL FOR MY DOMAIN NAME.

This is always a scam.  Your domain name was obtained on the internet and is paid for on the internet. If the mailing you receive instructs you to send in your payment via mail, it’s not real.  You can throw it away.  If you feel nervous, enter your domain into this website and see where your domain is registered.  https://www.whois.com/whois/

https://webcami.com/domain-registry-of-america-a-scam-alert-for-my-clients/

I KEEP GETTING EMAILS FROM GODADDY TO VERIFY MY ACCOUNT, ETC.

Most of the emails you get from GoDaddy are fakes.  How do you know?  There are several tells.  Look at the “from” address.  Most of the time this looks nothing like a GoDaddy email address.  Sometimes it does, but when you roll your mouse over the address, it’s not the same as the one you see. Then, ROLL over, but never click on the links in the email.  You can see at the bottom of your browser that these are spammy and again, not GoDaddy links.  Best way to deal with this?  Log in to your GoDaddy account DIRECTLY and see if you have any notices for domains expiring, etc.  Never login using ANY email you receive.  Note what’s in your account and when it expires and put this on a calendar.

You can report these here: https://www.godaddy.com/help/reporting-abuse-27154

I GOT A NOTICE FROM GODADDY THAT MY WEBSITE IS HACKED OR MY ACCOUNT WAS COMPROMISED.

Send this one to me.  This one is most likely real.  However, DO NOT CLICK on anything.  We need to log in to your account directly and find out what happened.  GoDaddy had a HUGE compromise in April and over 28,000 accounts were affected.   This needs immediate attention and I’m going to recommend new hosting.

https://www.techtimes.com/articles/249420/20200506/godaddy-gets-hacked-again-28-000-users-are-affected-this-time-around.htm

I SCANNED YOUR WEBSITE AND IT SUCKS.

Any form of this message is a scam, or at the very least, a cold call.  People are taking advantage of those that have websites and trying to get them to sign up for unneeded services.  You should never do business with someone that appears in your inbox unsolicited that no one referred you to.  Think of it as junk mail.  And you can report these to the government.

https://www.justice.gov/doj/spam

GOOGLE CALLED ME.

Rarely does Google call.  Maybe you asked for verification to Google my business, but that is an exception.  Almost all of it is spam.

https://support.google.com/business/answer/6212928?hl=en

https://www.zdnet.com/article/scam-alert-identifying-and-blocking-google-robocall-spam/

THE IRS CALLED ME.

Nope.  Especially now.  Hang up.

https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/irs-phone-scam-what-to-do-if-you-get-scam-call-2018-2

That’s my round-up of all the scams I’ve had to help clients with in the last 8 weeks.  I imagine this is going to continue to increase in intensity over the next few months. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with questions.  I’m always here to help!