As your website gains popularity and climbs higher in Search Engines, your website becomes more vulnerable to phishing scams. It is important to be aware of these types of scams to avoid any major repercussions that could come from clicking on links in these emails.
Here are a few common phishing scams:
Phishing Copyright Email from a Professional Photographer / Illustrator
These emails from a malicious scammer are dangerous and should be deleted right away. Do not click any links in emails that you do not trust. This scammer comes in many names and uses different email addresses and IP addresses to make them tougher to block.
Here is an example of this scam:
EXAMPLE 1
Hello there!
This is Melibella and I am a professional photographer.
I was baffled, frankly speaking, when I saw my images at your web-site. If you use a copyrighted image without an owner’s license, you’d better know that you could be sued by the creator.
It’s against the law to use stolen images and it’s so wicked!
Take a look at this document with the links to my images you used at [yourwebsite.com] and my earlier publications to obtain the evidence of my legal copyrights.
Download it now and check this out for yourself:
[Redacted link to the phishing site]
If you don’t delete the images mentioned in the document above within the next couple of days, I’ll file a complaint against you to your hosting provider informing them that my copyrights have been severely infringed and I am trying to protect my intellectual property.
And if it is not enough, you may be pretty damn sure I am going to take it to court! And I won’t give you a prior notice again.
EXAMPLE 2
My name is Sandy.
Your website or a website that your company hosts is violating the copyrighted images owned by myself.
Check out this doc with the hyperlinks to my images you utilized at [yourwebsite.com] and my previous publication to get the proof of my copyrights.
Download it right now and check this out for yourself:
[Redacted link to the phishing site]
I do think you have intentionally infringed my rights under 17 USC Section 101 et seq. and can be liable for statutory damage of up to $130,000 as set forth in Sec. 504 (c)(2) of the Digital millennium copyright act (DMCA) therein.
This letter is official notification. I seek the elimination of the infringing materials mentioned above. Please take note as a service provider, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act requires you, to remove and/or disable access to the infringing materials upon receipt of this particular letter. In case you do not stop the use of the above mentioned copyrighted materials a legal action can be initiated against you.
I do have a good self-belief that utilization of the copyrighted materials referenced above as presumably violating is not authorized by the legal copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
I declare, under consequence of perjury, that the information in this message is accurate and that I am currently the legal copyright owner or am certified to act on behalf of the proprietor of an exclusive right that is presumably infringed.
Sincerely,
Sandy Bartlett
WARNING The domain “yourwebsite.com” has reached their disk quota.
This email seems to be coming from cPanel – a popular hosting management system for WordPress websites. It’s scaring the user into thinking their website disk quota is reached prompting them to click the link to avoid any loss. But when you look below, you can see a few red flags.
- The email seems to be coming from “cPanel on yourwebsite.com” but if you look at the actual email, that is NOT cPanel.
- When you hover the URLs below, they are masked. If you hover and look in the bottom corner of your screen, you will see the actual URL:
- The above URL is not cPanel and is dangerous if clicked. Again, do not click any links that are not trusted. Check the actual email and URL destination link before taking any steps for your safety!
If you have received this email or a similar email and clicked the link it is important to ensure that your device doesn’t become infected. What do you do if you clicked on a phishing scam link?
Find more details about his Phishing scam and what the goal of this scam is for hackers and tips on how to spot scams.
These are definitely scary emails for those not aware of the scam. These emails are dangerous and should be discarded ASAP. If you are a Barketing client, all images used from our stock photography options are fully licensed so there is no worry.
If you receive any emails that seem sketchy, please contact our support team before opening the email at support@barketing.co.
Erika Godwin is the President of Barketing Solutions and the Co-Founder and CMO of ProPet Software, an industry-leading kennel management software. Erika has over 8 years of experience with WordPress and graduated from Elmira College in 2009 with a BS, Business Administration- Marketing and Management.
