Hi, I’m Dave Rich and I am a Team Lead in the QuickBooks Online Sales and Service team. I’m also part of a group who look into possible security breaches.
Below is important information on a scary topic called “Phishing and Cyber Crime”. But don’t worry, there is a lot you can do to protect yourself from this growing threat!
What is Phishing and Cyber Crime?
Have you ever received an email appearing to be from someone you do business with and trust (like Intuit or maybe your bank) asking you to perform some extremely important (possibly security related) task by a certain deadline?
Many of you probably have. Many communications like this are the work of Phishers or Cyber Criminals. These bad guys send out huge quantities of such emails all the time, hoping they will get a few unsuspecting folks to act. When some trusting individual takes the bait and performs the task, the results can be rather frightening . Financial, and information security losses are often incurred and it can take a lot of time and emotional energy to right the havoc these criminals can cause.
Your security censor should go off if the email asks you to:
- Download and install safety tools (i.e. Click here to download and install the super secret safety tool)
- Download an important update (i.e. Click here to download and install the very important update)
- login using a provided custom URL (i.e. “Click here to login”
- with embedded login fields (Please enter your: User name ________________ Password ________________ )
Most reputable businesses (like Intuit for example) 
will never send you “call to action” emails asking you to do any of the above!
These emails are just ways to get a hold of your login credentials or install a key-logger type virus that will record and send all your access IDs and passwords to the criminals. They then use this information and power to access your finances looking for ways to “get paid”. This is scary stuff.
But there are steps you can take to help protect against such threats.
- Carefully read any email asking you to perform some task.
- Look for poorly worded phrases, poor word choice, capitalization, punctuation and spelling mistakes. Often these emails are poorly written and contain these errors. Like “Please will you provides your Password hear to loggin and resolve this problems” If you find such miscues, that’s a big warning sign.
- Look for the call to action… “Do this before X date or else” The reason the date to act is so close, is the crooks know the site they’ve posted will be taken down soon. They have a limited window of opportunity to get the unsuspecting to act. Often only a day or two. The quick call to action is a huge red flag!
More about QuickBooks emails:
While Intuit might send you a special offer email or three, most concern special price offerings or new services and have a fair of lead time for you to take advantage of them.
If there ever were specific actions we need you to take regarding your program or a service you have subscribed to, we will almost always direct you to take action from within your program (i.e. perform an update or upgrade) or tell you to login to your subscribed service for further instructions. We won’t provide direct links in the email to perform these tasks.
Intuit takes your security very seriously and as a result we are on the lookout for new attacks all the time. However, when it comes to protecting yourself from the Phisher or Cyber Criminal, you are the first line of defense. Staying educated on what is happening and frankly being a little suspicious can go a long way. Last but not least, have virus protection software installed and keep it up to date.
Where can I learn more?
Visit security.intuit.com and see real communications AND phony ones too. You can even report suspicious emails you have received.
I hope this helped shed a light on this growing area of concern. Here’s to safe and hopefully cyber crime free 2010!
Best Regards
Dave Rich
In addition to focusing on delivering the best sales and service experience possible and keeping an eye peeled for shady behavior, Dave Rich is a Dad, Grampa, Classic Rock Guitarist and sometime SCCA Racing Mechanic.
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