I understand if getting an email that has any reference to taxes makes your heart stop, it's the easiest way to get my attention, that's for sure!  But, really, would a tax authority send you a notice via email?  Take a moment to look at the email below and see if you can pick out the red flags.

I found this email in my spam filter this afternoon.  (Thanks, SmarterMail!).   It's another attempt to take advantage of the fact that people are busy.  We're bombarded by incoming email - from customers, coworkers, vendors - and sometimes, we forget to think before we click.

I found this in my spam filter yesterday.  It purports to be from the payroll company, ADP.  It was easy for me to spot it as SPAM, since we don't use ADP for payroll processing.  But even that weren't the case, that there's a .zip file attached to this email would have raised a red-flag.

Boy was I surprised this morning when I found this “Funeral notification” in my inbox! I wondered, who in Florida would have the foresight to tell the local funeral home to send me an email about their impending “life service celebration” to be held later this afternoon….

The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) issued a recent advisory warning that cybercriminals will very likely attempt to use the Philippines Typhoon disaster as part of email scams and phishing campaigns.

Phishing attacks attempt to use high-profile events, including natural disasters in their subject line, to get victims to open an email and click on links contained in the message.

Virtual Density has identified an issue that may impact your IT systems. We are actively working on the issue and will provide updates as further information becomes available.

Potential Business Impact

Use extreme caution when opening .TIFF files and when visiting unknown websites.

Not all spam comes by email.  Yesterday, my husband got this "Domain Name Expiration Notice" in the mail.  His domain www.coachraysoftball.com doesn't expire until March 2014, and it wasn't registered with Domain Registry of America but here they are reminding him to renew.

If you've ever tried to set up your phone, tablet or computer to get your email then you've no doubt encountered these two IMAP and POP3. Maybe you already know what they mean, but in case you don't here's a quick explanation: 

POP3:  Downloads the message off the email server directly to your phone, tablet or computer and, usually, doesn't leave a copy of it on the server.

This week at Virtual Density we launched our Lunch and Learn series.  Today and Tuesday, the topic was 'Self Defense for Small Business' and one of the topics we talked about was scam emails.  No sooner did we finish up this afternoon and I returned to my desk to find this email in my spam filter.