Hacker Alert

Posted: December 15, 2011

[caption id="attachment_9402" align="alignright" width="346"]© Michael Brown - Fotolia.com[/caption]This can be the most wonderful time of the year, and it brings out the best in most people. Unfortunately, there are those that it brings out the worst in, as well.

Within the past two months, two POMA members have had their email accounts hacked. Most recently Hovey Smith, a Bellsouth customer, fell prey to a very official looking email. Hovey stated that it had Bellsouth's logos and their domain name in the reply to address – all indicators were that it was from Bellsouth. They were asking customers to sign in, because they were making changes. He did as directed, and in a very short time, he knew he had been hacked.

Hovey is at home and fine, not stranded in London, and is issuing a warning to all Bellsouth customers – keep an eye out for any email of this nature and be careful when doing what they ask. Most experts recommend contacting your email provider's customer service department, to verify the authenticity of the email, before you act on the email.

In case you've already had the misfortune of being hacked, click here to read Hacked and Hijacked: What to Do if Your E-mail Account Gets Compromised.