Today's landmark ruling upholding President Obama's health-care overhaul has dominated the news, drawn the undivided attention of social media, and, in turn, created a healthy environment for Internet scams to thrive.
Today's trending topics on Twitter are nearly all related to the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, which the Supreme Court upheld in a 5-4 decision today (June 28). It's a crucial piece of legislation, especially in an election year. For Internet scammers, it's a blessing — millions of eager, gullible eyes glued to the Web, hungry for information.
In the case of the Obamacare ruling, scams are likely to come in the form of "official" videos or photos from inside the Supreme Court, which, of course, do not exist. If you see such an offer, or anything else billed as "exclusive" or "never before seen," don't click on it.
[Obama Will Not Pay Your Phone Bill]
Other some scams will try to make people either angry or greedy, and to promise privileged information if you click on a link.
Expect to see emails and text messages along the lines of "SECRETS of the Obama health care legislation!" or "How Obamacare will raise YOUR taxes!" or "Obama will pay all YOUR medical bills!"
It's important to be very skeptical about any links or news stories spreading rapidly on Twitter of Facebook; if you want to find information about the ruling, directly to a legitimate news source's Web page.
SecurityNewsDaily has not seen any specific scams yet, but anytime there's an event that draws the nation or the world's attention, such as the death of Osama bin Laden or the Japan earthquake and tsunami, online crooks are always ready to prey on people and divert some of the massive Web traffic to their own malicious pages.