Mac – Tech Savvy Life

How to Spot Phishing Attempts

Phone and email scammers are running rampant. Here are some real-life phishing lures and how to stop scammers in their tracks.

RAYMOND OGLESBY @RaymondOglesby2
November 14, 2023

This is for devices using Text Messaging and Email.

Phone and email scammers are running rampant. Here are some real-life phishing lures and how to stop scammers in their tracks.

Recently, Google warned that hackers were sending phishing emails to YouTube creators, offering antivirus software in exchange for a review on the channel. The antivirus was, in fact, malware designed to steal passwords and browser cookies, which can also hold login credentials.

Tips for Opening Cold Emails

Identifying legitimate contact is difficult in the age of frequent phishing attempts. Recently after helping a friend figure out whether an email purporting to be from Facebook was a phishing lure. In the end, that email turned out to be a real marketing message from Facebook, but he had to go through several steps to determine the message’s legitimacy. Even we have difficulty determining the authenticity of messages from Facebook and other companies.

Facebook keeps a list of verified correspondence in the account area of your profile, so it’s easy to match emails you receive in your inbox with the messages you see from Facebook in your account. But what if you want to verify that an email came from someone you know and contains safe links? The US Federal Trade Commission offers a few steps you can take to stay safe:

Look at the From email address. If you do not recognize the address or the sender, think twice about opening any links contained within the email.
Spot a generic greeting. A business email usually will not begin with a casual greeting such as, “Hi Dear.” An email from a friend usually will not spell your name wrong or address you with an honorific like “Mr., Mrs., or Miss.”
Look at the link URLs. Mouse over links before you click on them. Your browser will reveal the web address for each one. If the link looks suspicious (for instance, a link purporting to be from Netflix takes you to an entirely different domain), do not click on it! Delete the email or report it as spam and move on.
Be wary of any emails that invite you to click on a link, whether to update your payment details, update your account information, receive a coupon for free stuff, or examine an invoice you are not expecting.

Our son is a cyber severity expert. He says, “Don’t click that link”.

Combat Email Phishing Attempts

Even the most vigilant email user can be caught unaware of a malicious link in an email. Add extra layers of protection to your online life so you can mitigate the damage done by scammers:

Use security software. The best antivirus and security suites have phishing protection built right in. Set the software to update automatically and run in the background to protect you from phishing attempts.
Use multi-factor authentication everywhere you can online. Even if a scammer manages to get a hold of your username or password, if you set up multi-factor to be something you have (a hardware security key or an authenticator app passcode), or something you are (a scan of your fingerprint, retina, or face), it’s harder for the bad guys to log into your accounts.
Back up your data. Copy your important documents and information regularly and store them on an external hard drive or with an online backup or storage service.

Phishing on Your Phone

Recently there have been SMS text messages using phishing attempts, also known as “smishing.” Here are some examples of smishing:

If you are not careful, these types of messages may fool you into giving up valuable information about yourself or downloading malware onto your phone.

Both messages came from an unknown phone number. Also, both requested action related to a finance-related problem, and both contained suspicious links. The first message is from an unknown company about a product we never purchased, and the use of the bit.ly link shortener is a common way for smishers to encourage their victims to click. The Citibank message is worrying because the link address is slightly off, featuring a dash instead of a period between “support” and “citi.”

For years, security researchers have noted that SMS spam could be curtailed by mobile carriers if they stopped offering unlimited texting plans. Until that happens, the best way to fight back against mobile spam in the United States is to forward the messages to short code SPAM (7726).

Phishing on Your Desktop

Here are a couple of email phishing attempts. The first one is an email from a company we do not use and with a weird link.

The second one has links that are way too long (only partially displayed) and a white dotted line at the top, and we did not request their help.

Disclaimer

Technology is always changing and rarely is there static tech for smartphones and desktops. Thus, the contents of this post are only valid at the time of writing. Blog posts older than six months may have directions incompatible with your device or OS. Hopefully, older post content will continue to work as advertised. Thank you for reading TechSavvy.Life for Technology at Work For You.

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How to Reverse Image Search With Google Images

Google Image Search allows users to perform a reverse image search by either using a URL from a website or a local image on your device. To do so, paste the image’s URL or upload the image file onto the Google Images search bar. Google will then provide visually similar images and may also help identify the original source of the image. However, pinpointing the exact origin of the image may not always be successful.

RAYMOND OGLESBY @RaymondOglesby2
October 10, 2023

This is for devices using Google. Screenshots are from Windows 10

Google Image Search is a great way to find images similar to one you already have or to help you track down the original source of a photo. Let’s find out how to do a reverse image search.

Search For an Image From a Website

If you would like to search for an image that appears on a website, you can paste the URL into the Google Images search bar; drag and drop an image or browse your files. We will show you how to do both.

For the first method, you need the URL of the image itself, not just the address for the page on which the image appears. The easiest way to grab that URL is to right-click the image and select the Copy image address. Refer to the below image:

Google Image 1 — Selecting the Copy image address option

Next, with the URL in your clipboard, head to Google Images and click the Google Lens icon. See the below image:

Google Image 6 — Selecting the Google Lens icon

Now, in the Paste image link text box, paste the URL you copied earlier and click Search. See the following image:

Next, you will see visually similar images in the right sidebar, and you can click Find image source to see where the image originated from. Keep in mind that this is not an exact science. Google often can not find the source, if there is one. Refer to the below image:

Google Image 4 — Selecting Find image source

Now, if there’s a specific part of the image you would like to search for, you can use the handles to adjust which part of the image is selected. See the below image:

Google Image 5 — Find image source by using the handles

That’s it! This is definitely the easiest method for searching Google with images. There are also ways to do reverse image searches on Android and iPhone or iPad.

Search for an Image You Already Have

To search Google Images with a local image you already have; maybe one you downloaded from the web; use the Google Lens icon in the Google Images search bar. You will be able to drag and drop an image or browse your files.

First, head on over to the Google Images page and click the Google Lens icon. See the following image:

Next, you can either drag an image from another window; such as the file explorer; or click upload a file to browse for photos on your computer. Refer to the below image:

Google Image 8 — Selecting to drag and drop an image or upload a file

Now, after the image uploads, you will be brought to a page with visually similar images in the right sidebar. Click Find image source to see where the image originated from. One thing to note is with images that have not been grabbed from the web, it’s not as easy to find the original source. See the below image:

Next, if there’s a specific part of the image you would like to search for, you can use the handles to adjust which part of the image is selected. See the following image:

How about that! This is a great way to find similar images, or maybe you want to find different sizes of an image you already have. Google Search is a powerful tool, and Google Lens drives a lot of image-related search functions. It’s a pretty impressive tool in itself.