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phishing - is the act of tricking someone into giving them confidential information or tricking them into doing something that they normally wouldn’t do or shouldn’t do.
Arm yourself against phishing attacks with knowledge from this guide! Protect yourself against one of the latest internet traps for identity fraud!
For example: sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft.
Here's how phishing works. You check your email everyday and you click on the most important ones coming from your bank, credit card company, or even PayPal. Months later or instantly, you discover that you have been a victim of identity theft and you wonder how the con-artists got all your information.
I will tell you how they did it:
1) They create a template or fancy looking email design that looks like the legitimate emails that your banks normally send you. They cover every detail of it so that it REALLY DOES look like the front page of Paypal or Washington Mutual, etc. 2) The email will contain a typical warning message that says that you must update your information for security purposes or else they will deactivate your account. Often, the email message will even say that your security is already compromised and that they want to re-verify your information. 3) You believe the email and become afraid of some hacker being able to access your account, so you innocently click on the link, and you are led to a website that LOOKS JUST LIKE THE REAL THING. A website that looks just like your bank or other money accounts. You begin to fill in all your information just as name, address, DOB, and even your social security number.
The con-artists have all the info they need to commit identity fraud and buy things in your name.
HOW TO STAY SAFE FROM PHISHING ATTACKS:
Don't EVER EVER fill out your information online from a link in your email address. (Don't trust the link either, often the link and From and Subject are will appear to be a legitimate email from your bank! Just because it says from
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doesn't mean that it is, hackers have a smart way of hiding links so that you can't tell if it's authentic or not!) Always go directly to the website and fill it out yourself IF YOU NEED TO. Best of all, just don't fill out important information online. Walk into the bank and do it. Also be careful when typing the web addresses of your online banking website. There are many hackers that will take a domain like paypall.com for example and hope that you spell PayPal wrong and end up at their site where you type in your username and password for them to record.
Phishing is easy to guard yourself against. Just remember that your bank will NEVER ASK YOU TO VERIFY YOURSELF OR ASK FOR IMPORTANT INFORMATION THROUGH EMAIL! Stay safe and have a good day! Learn about other online scams from the links below:
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