Beware of email scam that uses BBB complaint
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It's an email that business owners don't want to see in their inbox -- an unhappy customer has filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.
The notice from the bureau, complete with the organization's well-known BBB torch logo, directs the recipient to open a complaint report and respond to it "as soon as possible."
It lists the name of a "dispute counselor" and provides telephone and fax numbers and an address for the Council of Better Business Bureaus in Arlington, Va.
After receiving two of these emails, I called the number and listened to a recording say the email is a scam that has spread across North America and even reached some overseas addresses.
The BBB says the emails have a link or attachment that contains "malicious phishing malware that steals information, often with devastating results."
Phishing is the fraudulent practice of sending emails that appear to be from legitimate businesses in an attempt to encourage/frighten individuals to reveal personal information.
Malware, one of the biggest threats to computer users on the Internet, can hijack your browser, redirect your search attempts, generate offensive pop-up ads, track what websites you visit and cause computers to slow down and become unstable.
The bureau said one of the phony emails was received by a client of the Trivalent Group, a BBB-accredited business in Michigan that helps its customers manage, assess, protect and store their data.
The client opened the attachment. It "launched malware that quickly found the accounting office's computers, accessed bank numbers and passwords and nearly completed a fund transfer from the company's account.
"We had to completely wipe the computers in order to contain the damage to our client," said Dawn Simpson, Trivalent's vice president of marketing and business development. Its CEO, Larry Andrus, is a board member of the BBB's western Michigan chapter.
Because of this latest incident, the BBB has updated the advice it initially issued about these emails. In addition to warning recipients not to open any attachments or click on any links, it advised them to delete the email from their inboxes, delete it again from their trash or recycling folder and run a full system scan using reputable virus software.
Although the bureau had recommended a full system scan only if the recipients had clicked on the link or opened the attachment, it now urges all recipients to conduct such a scan "due to the virulent nature of the virus."
First Published January 5, 2012 12:00 am
