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Anything for a buck No one is immune to the regular enslaught of spam and various scams that run across our inboxes. Just when you think the circumstances can't get any worse, another disaster strikes that makes way for another opportunity by scammers. Here are some more famous ones.
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Funeral notification phishing scam The bad guys did not hesitate to exploit the most basic fears of people; the sudden death of a loved one. The message claimed to be from a funeral home and notified the recipient about an upcoming funeral and instructed them to click a link to view their invitation and more details about the ceremony.
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Court Notice to Appear Scammers are sending phishing emails claiming to come from a real law firm called 'Baker & McKenzie' stating you are scheduled to appear in court and should click a link to view a copy of the court notice. If you click on the link, you download and install malware.
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Ebola Virus as Bait During its peak in fall 2014, the US-CERT issued a warning against email and cyber campaigns using the Ebola virus outbreak as a theme, again, preying on fear.
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eBay troubles Last year's eBay debacle resulted in the loss of 145 million credentials. To add insult to injury eBay made the inexcusable mistake of sending its users an email WITH A LINK THEY NEED TO CLICK. This confused customers and made them easy targets.
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Nude Celebrity Photos Scam Jennifer Lawrence Nude Pictures Phishing used her popularity to post the ultimate male click bait and expose a bug in iCloud. The news carried this event and phishers exploited it.
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You Owe Taxes, Pay Now or Else This scam uses intimidation to prey on victims using threats of arrest, deportation or loss of business or a drivers license. This showed up with both phishing emails and spoofed caller IDs prompting a warning from the US Treasury.
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MH17 Airplane Crash Nearly 300 people shot down and all the criminals thought of is how to exploit the disaster via email and social media links including fake video links sending clickers to porn sites.
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Robin Williams "goodbye" video A bogus Facebook phishing message appeared that invited users to click a link and see an "exclusive" video of Robin Williams saying goodbye through his cell phone. Of course there was no video, and the link led to a bogus BBC news page which tried to trick clickers into clicking on other links that led to scam online surveys.
In Pictures: The worst of the worst phishing scams
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The depths a phishing scammer will stoop to in order to gain a buck are remarkable. Here are some of the bottom feeders to guard against in your inbox.
