Written By ESR News Blog Editor Thomas Ahearn
The Better Business Bureau® (BBB) is warning consumers to be on the lookout for a background check email scam that landed in BBB inboxes recently. The BBB warns the fake messages claim someone ordered a background check on the email recipients to get them to click an infected link. The BBB alert is at http://www.bbb.org/blog/2015/02/someone-ordered-your-background-check-its-a-scam/.
The BBB explains the background check scam sends consumers an email with the subject line: “Someone recently viewed your background-information.” The message claims to be an automatically generated notification that someone “has just recently ordered the results of your background-check.” Consumers are told to “find out more about this new-scan” with a link at the bottom of the message.
However, although consumers may be curious, the BBB warns them not to click the link. This email is a background check scam and the link will download malware to computers. The BBB also suggests consumers should not to click on links that come in “unsolicited” emails. The BBB background check scam warning also includes ways consumers can spot malicious emails not caught by spam filters:
- The email claims to have information about consumers that they never signed up for. Scams often pretend to be personalized for individuals but they are actually blast emails. If consumers never signed up for custom email alerts they should not be receiving them.
- Check out the “From” field to look for email addresses that do not match the brand used in the email message. Scammers have the ability to mask email addresses to make the message appear to come from a legitimate source but do not always use it.
- Watch for typos, strange phrasing, and bad grammar in the email. In this example, the strange hyphens in “background-information” and “new-scan” are a telltale sign of a scam.
- Hover over URLs in the email to reveal their true destination that may contain malware. Typically, the hyperlinked text will say one thing but the link will point to fake websites or hack into third-party sites and use them to host malware.
For more than 100 years, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) has helped people find and recommend businesses, brands, and charities. Consumers may check out BBB Scam Stopper to find out more information about other scams at http://www.bbb.org/council/bbb-scam-stopper. For more ESR News blogs about the BBB, please visit http://www.esrcheck.com/wordpress/tag/bbb/.
ESR is a BBB Accredited Business
Employment Screening Resources® (ESR) – ‘The Background Check Authority®’ – is a nationwide background check firm accredited by the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS®). ESR is also accredited by the Better Business Bureau (BBB). For more information, click here. To learn more about ESR services, call Toll Free 888.999.4474 or visit http://www.esrcheck.com.
The post BBB Warns About Background Check Email Scam appeared first on ESR News Blog.