Afrihost ISP said today that they have become aware of dangerous phishing scams that are being targeted at Afrihost clients and want to ensure clients that they are not victimised by criminals! NEVER give out your payment details or personal information unless you are on a secure website with a trusted vendor.
Phishing scams work by tricking you into clicking on a link or attachment that either infects your machine with malware or takes you to a page that looks real, but isn’t, and is specifically designed to steal your confidential account information.
Please read through the info below to help you stay safe and secure.
As a general rule, you should never share personal or financially sensitive information over the Internet. Most phishing emails/SMSes will direct you to pages where entries for financial or personal information are required. Afrihost will NEVER ask for your ClientZone username or password.
Look out for:
- Unfamiliar URLs (web pages addresses)
- Bad spelling and grammar
- Inconsistent contact information (a different phone number, for example)
- It doesn’t look and sound like Afrihost (page design, colours, language, etc.)
How do I know an email or SMS is from Afrihost?
Any email that Afrihost sends will ALWAYS come from an @afrihost.com email address – so make sure to always first check who the sender is. SMSes usually are sent in combination with an email with more details.
Afrihost will NEVER ask for your banking details or login details via a message. If you receive a message stating that your Afrihost account is in arrears, you can double check by logging into your ClientZone account and clicking on the ‘Billing’ tab. Payments should always be made via the ClientZone portal and we will never ask you to make a payment to another account.
Think before you click!
It’s fine to click on links when you’re on trusted sites. Clicking on links that appear in random emails/SMSes, however, isn’t such a smart move. Hover over links that you are unsure of before clicking on them. Do they go to the website they are supposed to? When in doubt, go directly to the Afrihost website and navigate to ClientZone from there, rather than clicking a potentially dangerous link.
Always check that you are on the correct website.
Scammers can take you to a page that looks real, but isn’t, and is specifically designed to steal your confidential account information.
Always make sure the site’s URL begins with “https”. You should see a closed lock and “Afrihost SP (Pty) Ltd (ZA)” in your browser bar if you are on Afrihost.com or ClientZone. If you do not see this, do NOT divulge any information and leave the site immediately.
A secure password is one a hacker can’t easily guess or crack using software tools and one that is unique and complex.
Below are a few do’s and dont’s on how to choose a secure password:
- Choose a password that no one will easily guess or hack.
- Make sure your password is at least 8 to 10 characters long.
- Use a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, symbols and numbers. For example, if you want to use the phrase “I Love chocolate” you can change it to
- “@1Lov3Choc0lat3”.
- Don’t use commonly used passwords, such as 123456 or the word “password”.
- NEVER share passwords with anyone. Don’t use the same password across multiple websites.
- HINT: Use a standard core password and then CUSTOMISE that according to the web site you are on. e.g CORE Password: e.g. _PL<$RFV PLUS Web Site Rule: e.g. first 2 and last 2 letters of the web site that you are on. So for FraudAlert.co.za the UNIQUE password will be: Fr_PL<$RFVrt. Use any combination that you will remember like 1st and last letters before or after, mix it up and be safe.
If remembering multiple passwords is an issue, you can use a password manager to securely store your passwords. There are pay-for and free password managers available, for example Dashlane, 1Password, Keeper and even Google Passwords.
If you think your password has been compromised, change it immediately.