At this present moment, it is common to encounter fraudulent emails that circulate among the Internet community. It seems to be a trend that is on the rise.

These fraudulent emails have been professionally crafted so that the content and presentation imitate emails which are legitimately sent by "actual" organizations such as financial institutions, online trading communities, businesses, solutions providers and other utility vendors.

The purpose of these fraudulent emails are always malicious in nature. Using deception, these parties intend to achieve one or more of the following:

• Create unnecessary panic
• Obtain private information including username and passwords
• Attempt to transfer funds and credits from your account to theirs
• Damage the data within your computer using viruses, trojans and worms

We would like to highlight two types of common fraudulent e-mails and advise caution when presented with these emails.

1. Emails with attachment
These emails are carefully worded to encourage the receiver to execute an attached file in order to perform an action. Often, the sender also threatens the receiver to execute the attachment or else a penalty will be imposed. Do not execute these attachments as they are likely to contain trojans, viruses and worms.

2. Emails requesting a username or password update
These emails encourage the receiver to update their account details on a website. The email will contain links to a fake website that looks identical to the legitimate/actual website. Users who key in their username and password for the service will have their details captured by the creator of the fraudulent email.

In all cases, if you doubt the legitimacy of any email, the best thing to do is to contact the organization directly. Do not use the numbers and email addresses which have been provided by the fraudulent email as those details will point you back to the creator of the email.

Safe surfing!