Phishing
What is phishing?
It's a deliberate, and often successful, attempt on the part of a fraudster to entice you into giving up details of your personal identity: bank account and credit card access details included.
As long as you are aware of the problem and don't do something silly, you're safe.
Banks, Microsoft, and other reputable organisations don't send unsolicited emails. if you haven't signed up for that newsletter which appeared in your mailbox, it's probably out to do you mischief. At the very least it's trying to open you up to spam attacks, at worst it's trying to get into your bank account.
It's a con job! No matter how real it looks.
Now I know, gentle reader, that you're not one of those unbelievably stupid and trusting souls who send their bank account numbers, PINs and credit card details when asked by email, but don't anyway!!! OK?
Giving personal or financial information on the Internet.
Before giving your personal or financial information to anyone:
- remember that Nigerian Princesses all live in Manchester and work for a living.
- they usually ask for information such as usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, social security numbers, etc. Ignore any email containing requests for personal financial information.
- phishers often include disturbing or exciting information in their email in order to distract you into responding quickly and without reflecting for too long.
- most of the phishing emails which purport to be from legitimate sources and the they might point to websites are very convincing duplicates of the real thing.
- never give anything out in an email or in a site that's linked from an email.
-
if
you're shopping or carrying out financial transaction on the Web,
before giving your credit card number, look
for the secure website padlock (like the one on the right) at the bottom
of your screen and a URL which starts with https://
rather than plain old http://. Don't give it to anyone
you're not absolutely confident in.
Current scams
Millions of emails are pouring into people's Inboxes as we speak offering super cheap copies of Windows Vista and other software. these people are after your money, but they don't intend to sell you anything.
They're crooks - delete any emails whose source you're unsure of without opening them. Preferably use the killer keyboard shortcut Shift + Delete, which consigns them to oblivion, bypassing the "Deleted Items" folder.
Online
Banking and eCommerce is safe, but
In addition to the above:
- if in doubt, telephone the company or log onto their website directly by typing in the Web address in your browser's address bar.
- consider installing a tool to help protect you from known phishing fraud websites. EarthLink ScamBlocker is part of a free browser toolbar that alerts you before you visit any page on Earthlink's list of known phishing Web sites. It's free and available here: Earthlink Toolbar
- log into your online accounts regularly to check that nothing's amiss.
- always check your bank and credit card statements to ensure that all transactions are legitimate
- keep Windows and your browser up to date with security patches.
- report "phishing" or “spoofed” e-mails to the following groups:
- forward emails to
reportphishing@antiphishing.com
and to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission at
spam@uce.gov
- forward the entire original email with its original header information intact to the "abuse" email address at the company that is being spoofed (e.g. "spoof@somecompany.com").
- notify the Internet Fraud Complaint Centre of the FBI by filing a complaint on their website: www.ifccfbi.gov/
