What Is Phishing?
People involved in sport fishing know that although most fish will see bait floating in the water and ignore it, a few will be tempted into biting. The internet has its own variation of this, which is appropriately called "phishing." Phishing is the act of sending an email claiming to be a legitimate organization in an attempt to entice readers into surrendering personal information. After years of being deluged with spam, most computer users probably consider themselves veterans in the war against email exploitation. Yet, many people still fall prey to phishing. It isn't because they are not intelligent, it's because phishers have gone beyond $10 Rolex watches and .05 % mortgage refinancing rates to extremely legitimate looking email from respected companies like Bank of America, ebay, and PayPal.In short, phishing can take to form of hoaxes, fraudulent email or websites designed to appear as legitimate offers or services. The creators and originators attempt to get you to submit personal information that can then be used to empty bank accounts, max-out credit cards and even assume your identity.
Avoiding the Hook
With phishing schemes that look this legitimate, how do you avoid getting filleted? Beware of e-mails and websites that:- Ask you to provide personal information such as your bank account number, an account password, credit card number, PIN number, mother's maiden name, or Social Security number.
- Fail to address you by your name using a generic “Dear Customer” or your email address in the salutation.
- Fail to confirm the company does business with you, such as referencing a partial account number.
- Warn that your account will be shut down unless you reconfirm your financial information.
- Warn that you have been the victim of fraud.
- Have spelling or grammatical errors.
Click here to view text examples of common phishing emails.
