Fake Gift Card Balance Checking Sites May Steal Your Money

 Scammers have a new way of ripping people off this year. If you're not mindful of it, it could literally cost you. Gift cards have always been fairly popular, but this year, they seem to be more popular than ever. According to the online fraud prevention company, Bolster, thieves have been hard at work setting up bogus 'gift card balance' checking websites designed to siphon money away from unsuspecting consumers.

Here's' how it works:

You get a gift card for Christmas and put it in a drawer for a few weeks or even months. Eventually, you find it, but by now, you can't remember if you spent some of the money that was on the card. So you're not at all sure how much money is left. You go online and do some searching, which brings up a link to a site promising to give you your gift card balance in just a few clicks.

You surf to the page, enter in your card number and instead of giving you your balance information. (usually you'll get a timeout message, but some are more sophisticated than that), it will send the gift card number to a command and control server so the hackers can steal it. They use it to order goodies for themselves, either to keep or resell.

It's low, but it's an easy scam to pull off, and even relatively unsophisticated criminals can manage it, so expect to see lots of bogus balance checking sites this year.

While Target seems to be the retailer that the scammers are most focused on this year, Bolster has spotted a number of other fake balance checking sites targeting companies like:

• Bath and Body Works
• Forever 21
• Amazon
• The Google Play Store
• And HBO

Just be aware that the scam exists, and be mindful of where you go on the web when you check your gift card balances.

Does your company offer gift cards? Could your company be suspect to this kind of fraud? Visit https://www.spartantec.com/darkweb for a dark web scan of your companies credentials.

Digital credentials such as usernames and passwords connect you and your employees to critical business applications, as well as online services. Unfortunately, criminals know this — and that’s why digital credentials are among the most valuable assets found on the Dark Web.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Myrtle Beach, SC 29577
843-418-4792
manageditservicesmyrtlebeach.com

Used with permission from Article Aggregator

Twitter Making Changes To Their Political Ad Rules

Social media has been at the center of several high-profile political dramas of late. The major platforms came under fire for not doing enough to monitor political ads and other content.  The major players on the social media landscape are all responding in different ways to the backlash. Recently, Twitter announced some new policies that will likely be in place before the time you read these words.

Beginning on November 22^nd on Twitter, the company's new political content and cause-based advertising policies will forbid the paid promotion of certain content. This includes any content that references government officials, ballot measures, referendums,
regulations, legislation, candidates, political parties, or government officials.  This change essentially renders it pointless for candidates for political office, or for PACs and Super PACs that may be supporting them to purchase Twitter ads.

As details about the company's new policies came to light, even supporters of the idea were quick to criticize. They pointed out that issue-based advertisers would also be punished by the changes. Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey clarified. He said that issue-based advertisers will be restricted, rather than banned outright. He also said going forward, they will be unable to target users based on demographic factors like race, age, or specific location. Although general location (state and province-level) would still be allowed.

This is a decent compromise position that doesn't leave issue-based advertisers thrilled. However it is broadly seen as a step in the right direction.  One thing the new policy change doesn't address though, is the matter of disinformation on the platform, which tends to spread like wildfire.

All in all, the changes are generally positive, but they should be seen as a first step only.  Social media has unfortunately become a cesspool of misinformation, and no one seems to have any good ideas on how to go about changing that.

Call SpartanTec, Inc. in Myrtle Beach if you need help in securing your network, devices, business, and customer information from all possible threats.

SpartanTec, Inc.
Myrtle Beach, SC 29577
843-561-9775
https://www.spartantec.com/