BBB Tip of the Week

Reports of fake community alert emails warning of a child predator living nearby have surfaced. The email claims to have been sent based on your local area code, may claim that you signed up for the alert and asks you to click a link to learn more. The link actually takes you to a website pretending to be a legitimate business or agency, where malware downloads onto your system. In other cases, the link will send you to a legitimate website after routing you through several malicious websites where the download occurs.

Either way the malware is loaded on your computer and will attempt to find sensitive information. With this information, the perpetrators can steal your identity.

The Better Business Bureau offers the following advice to steer clear of malicious emails:

• Delete suspicious emails and never click links or open any attachments in them.

• Poor spelling and grammatical errors are signs that email is fraudulent.

• Don’t be fooled by emails asking for immediate action, such as clicking a link. Instead go to a website that you know is legitimate.

• Don’t trust that logo. Scammers are often able to fake email addresses and use logos of businesses and government agencies to seem legitimate.

• Run your anti-virus and anti-malware software often. One of the most popular free anti-malware programs is Malwarebytes ( www.malwarebytes.org).

To learn about sex offenders in Washington state, visit the website for the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs at http://ml.waspc.org/. To search for sex offenders in other states, visit www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/registry.

For more tips, visit the BBB Consumer News and Opinion Blog at www.bbb.org/blog or call (509) 455-4200.

By Erin T. Dodge, BBB editor