Anti Anti Download Spyware Virus Article
Phishing Dont Fall for Phishing
Phishing is an email spam scam that is specifically used to commit identity theft. Its sole purpose is to scam you into divulging personal information, which they can use to perpetrate identity theft. This includes passwords, card numbers, birth dates, PINs and other vital personal data. The term came into use to denote the way phishers bait to lure their victims into divulging private data. Industry experts define this devious practice as a form of "social engineering."
Typically, a phishing attack will be executed in combination with a massive spam mailing. Phishing spam is sent out to millions of recipients, often with a subject line that is exciting or upsetting. It is calculated to trigger an immediate reaction from the recipient, and get them to respond without further thought.
The phishing email will often have phrases such as:
-Dear Valued Customer.
-Click the link below to access to your account.
-If you don't respond within 24 hours, your account shall be closed.
The phishing spam is typically a fraudulent but very official-looking e-mail. It is cleverly designed to replicate the website and email messages of a business you know and trust such as your bank or mortgage company. The email will even sport official logos and graphics of the legitimate company.
It will instruct you to click on a link in the email to go to the company's website, where you can "update" your personal information. The link will usually be "masked," which means that when you click on it, it will take you to a phony web address. Clicking on the link will take you to a website that appears to be that of the real financial institution's website. It is, however, just a copycat spoof, set up to give the spammer access to your personal and financial data. You may give your information thinking you are at the real website. Instead, any information you enter here will go directly to the identity thieves.
What are the Consequences?
If you fall prey to the scam and unwittingly divulge private information, you will be left vulnerable to identity theft, credit card fraud and other financial mishaps.
These identity thieves will either sell the information to fellow criminals, or use it for their own financial gain. This vital personal data will be used, for example, to set up fraudulent online bill pay, with payments made out to the phisher. They may use it to access funds from your bank accounts and credit cards and transfer them to their own checking accounts. They may even use a copy of your bank or credit card along with the phished PIN to withdraw cash from your accounts at any ATM.
Phishing is a numbers game for these criminal spammers. They will send out their phishing email to millions of recipients. They count on just a few falling for the scam and volunteering their information: if a mere 1% of recipients volunteer their personal information, the phishing expedition will be a hughly lucrative. It is these few who make their scam worthwhile.
Don't Fall for the Phisher's Bait
Never respond directly to any unsolicited email that asks you to update or verify your personal information. Banks, stores and other legitimate businesses will never ask you to give this information via email, particularly following the advent of phishing.
If there is any doubt as to whether or not the email is from who it purports to be, contact the company immediately to confirm and clarify the request for information. Be sure to call a phone number from your statement. Calling the phone number in the email is probably a direct line to the identity thief.
Never click on a link in any such email. To do so would be to risk downloading malicious Trojan horse spyware, which will install keyloggers in your computer system. This would provide hackers direct access to all the personal data stored on your computer, which they will use for their own nefarious financial gain.
Never, ever fill out forms contained in an email that request personal information. The mere request for this information should ring a loud alarm bell. Phishers are able to use HTML to design very official-looking email messages. Any information entered into these forms goes directly to the phisher
Never trust links contained in unsolicited email. Phishers have devised ways to spoof legitimate website links. Common tricks that are used include misspelling web addresses or using sub-domains that include the name of a legitimate business.
An email link can also be "masked" in such a way that it displays a very official looking text-link to a legitimate company's website, but clicking on it will take you to the phisher's web site.
Do not cut and paste the link contained in the message into your browser. Type the address of the legitimate company in a separate browser window, so as to bypass having to click on the link in a suspected phishing email.
Always be suspicious of impersonal email. Almost all email communication from legitimate businesses will contain some specific piece of personal information that is not readily available to anyone but you. An email from your bank, for example may include part of your account number.
Always keep in mind that here are malicious people out there who do nothing more than think up creative, innovative ways to get at your personal information.
Be sure to use anti-syware and anti-virus software, and keep these regularly updated. Anti-spam filter software may help eliminate or minimize the amount of phishing spam you will receive in your inbox.
Be very cautious of opening any emailed attachments you receive, even if they seem to be from an acquaintance.
Help catch the phishers by reporting any phishing attempts. Forward the phishing email to the company that is being spoofed. Also forward it to these email addresses as well:
spam@uce.gov and reportphishing@antiphishing.org. This information will be used by the Anti-Phishing Working Group to fight phishing. This organization is a coalition between the internet industry, and financial institutions and law enforcement.
Learn more and stay informed by visiting the Federal Trade Commission's Identity Theft website: www.consumer.gov/idtheft.
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