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Crooks smarten up as consumers get savvy

The public has become increasingly savvy when it comes to spotting classic internet security scams such as those originating from Nigeria, but cyber crooks are adapting to new techniques, it has been reported.

Cyber crooks' new exploits are part of the spam messages dominating majority of email messages as criminals send out socially engineered scams that are more sophisticated, according to Reuters.

Some of the scams include those impersonating trusted entities, such as PayPal, which has been exploited by crooks sending out phishing letters purporting to be from the company.

The company responded to this by adding a digital signature to its emails, and instructed email providers including Yahoo and Google to block any without the signature, the news provider states.

Paypal's chief information security officer Michael Barrett is quoted by Reuters as stating that the move has resulted in around ten million rogue messages a month being blocked.

Consumers can avoid being compromised or exposed to online threats by not responding to unsolicited messages, as well as having proper internet security software.

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