I warned you about a number of Ebola scams in my Scam of the day for October 16th, however, a new one is now appearing that requires a specific warning.    This scam starts with an email that appears to come from the World Health Organization that contains a link for you to click on in order to download an attachment purported to contain tips to protect you from the Ebola virus.   It is preying upon the public’s fear and concern regarding Ebola.  However, if you download the attachment, you will not get Ebola information, but will download a keystroke logging malware program that will steal your personal information from your computer and use it to make you a victim of identity theft.

TIPS

Never click on links or download attachments in emails, text messages or social media postings unless you have confirmed that the links or downloads are legitimate.  Trust me, you can’t trust anyone.  It is easy to make a counterfeit message that carries the logo of a real organization and appears to be legitimate.  If you even have the slightest thought that the message may indeed be legitimate, you should merely go to the website at an address that you know is correct or call the entity at a telephone number you have confirmed is correct to verify whether or not the original message to you was phony or not.  In this particular case, the World Health Organization never sends messages to the general public, so you should immediately know it is a scam.