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Fake E-mails Circulating, Masquerading as Southwest Airlines

A scam e-mail posing as a message from the well-known Southwest Airlines is presently circulating online, according to digitaljournal.com dated July 25, 2012.

Lying to the recipient, the message tells that he's a winner of 2 free flight tickets from Southwest Airlines. Without any doubt, the e-mail is a scam, while having the least close similarity with a few other craftier ones which float across social-networking websites or through e-mail, nowadays.

Nonetheless, the e-mail isn't a message from the Southwest Airlines, while carries several indications, which may enable a recipient towards recognizing the involved trick.

One, the e-mail writes 'Southwest' as 'SouthWest' in its e-mail id with the 'w' incorrectly written as 'W.' Moreover, the web-links in the e-mail don't take onto anything even slightly looking similar to a Southwest URL. Indeed, a few versions of this electronic mail display web-links, which take onto other unassociated web-links to Southwest Airlines that have some other URL addresses.

Worryingly, according to security investigators examining the above mentioned ploy, it's because of phishing e-mail scams like ones just shown that phishing attempts are increasing online. Their assertion also receives the support of different prominent security experts worldwide.

Meanwhile, Southwest Airlines isn't the only name which became the target of an e-mail scam. For, during December 2011, a likewise e-mail scam circulated, falsely asserting as being sent from American Airlines. The web-links or attachments in the messages of that e-mail scam, if clicked or opened, reportedly resulted in malware getting installed onto the end-users' PCs.

Indeed, cyber-criminals routinely dispatch fake e-mails, which themed with current stories, deceive recipients so they would inadvertently click a given web-link or view an attachment. Since 2009, many likewise e-mail scams targeted Delta Airlines clients too. So did scam e-mails target many airline carriers in 2008, asserting that the latter charged the credit card of the recipient in purchases of flight tickets. Still further, certain attachment contained malicious software, which was capable of filching information.

Therefore, according to security officials, anyone getting the aforementioned kinds of e-mails must delete them right away and do nothing else whatsoever with them.

Related article: Fake-mails Troubling Credit Union Customers

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