A large email service provider called Epsilon was recently compromised by hackers and has lost names and emails for millions of people whose records they managed for many different banks, stores, etc including the Kroger grocery chain (Fred Meyer, etc.) Citigroup, Barclays Bank, Ethan Allen furniture, Best Buy and many more.

It is very likely that this will result in targeted email scams as the hackers now have information on specific organizations connected to the email addresses they stole.

The following excellent tips on avoiding email scams were posted in a blog by Brian Krebs this morning (to see the entire article go to – http://krebsonsecurity.com/2011/04/after-epsilon-avoiding-phishing-scams-malware/):

“Don’t take the bait: Many people are familiar with the traditional phishing attack, which arrives in  an email that appears to have been sent from your bank or ISP, warning that your account will be suspended  unless you take some action immediately, usually clicking a link and “verifying” your account information, user name, password, etc. at a fake site. Commercial emails that emphasize urgency should be always considered extremely suspect, and under no circumstances should you do anything suggested in the email. Phishers count on spooking people into acting rashly because they know their scam sites have a finite lifetime; they may beshuttered at any moment (most phishing scams are hosted on hacked, legitimate Web sites). If you’re really concerned, pick up the phone (gasp!) and call the company to find out if there really is anything for you to be concerned about.

Links Lie: You’re a sucker if you take links at face value. For example, this might look like a link to Bank of America, but I assure you it is not. To get an idea of where a link goes, hover over it with your mouse and then look in the bottom left corner of the browser window. ”