What is Phishing?
It a form of online identity
theft where an individual or company attempts to
fraudulently acquire personal and/or private
information from a user — such as passwords,
account numbers, social security numbers, etc.
The “phisher” poses as a trustworthy person or
business and uses email or an instant message to
convince users that they need to respond with
certain personal information. It’s usually
financial information they are after so that
they can use your credit card or bank account
for criminal acts.
How Phishing
Works
The spoofed email
will look extremely similar to one you’d receive
from your financial institution or another
company you do business with. It might ask you
to “verify your account information” or “confirm
your billing information”. The link will direct
you to a spoofed site that also mimics that of
the company they are posing as. When a user
visits the fake site, their personal information
can be used to create fake accounts in the
victim’s name, ruin their credit or even prevent
them from accessing their email or account.
Protecting
Yourself
While these aren’t
all the foolproof ways in which Phishing occurs,
there are smart tips you should practice every
day.
Ways To Spot
a Fake:
- Spelling
mistakes and the presence of an IP address
in the link within the email
- Lack of a
personal greeting, although the presence of
one does not mean it’s legitimate
- Absence of
partial account numbers from banks and
credit card companies
If you are
suspicious, contact the company you think is
sending you the email. They can either confirm
it is truly from them or alert their customers
that someone may be phishing.
Other Tips
To Help Protect Your Privacy:
- Install a spam
filter on your email
- Some of the
latest Internet browsers (Microsoft IE7,
Mozilla Firefox 2.0, and Opera) contain
special software to automatically check for
fraudulent URL
