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Guide To Avoid eMail Phishing Scams
Protecting Your Identity When Online
The FBI ranks identity theft as one of fastest growing crimes today. Although identity thieves use many old fashioned methods for obtaining a potential victim's identity information (such as digging through garbage dumpsters for old receipts, etc), online phishing is quickly growing as the leading way for identity thieves to steal personal information.
What Is Phishing?
Phishing (pronounced 'fishing') is a method that criminals use to lure potential victims into giving them sensitive information such as credit card information, passwords, etc. The phishers accomplish this by masquerading as a business or institution in bogus websites or email messages. In effect, the phisher uses a lure to fish for sensitive information.
How The Phisher Casts The Net
The most common method of phishing is via email. The phisher sends out bogus email messages that appear to be from a reputable company or financial institution. Because the phisher sends out thousands of these emails, chances are good that many recipients will be customers of the company and more easily fooled. Below is an image of an actual phishing scam email.
"Using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer makes it more difficult for phishers and other scammers to steal your private information." - Get Firefox and surf the
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Most Internet Users Are Fooled By The Realistic Looking Lure
As you can see from the phishing scam letter above, it can be very easy to be fooled into clicking on the link to 'reestablish' your account. Scams exist for virtually every large bank and many other businesses, so chances are you already have, or will receive one of these emails that appear to be from a company that you do business with.
When the victim clicks the link in the email they are directed to a webpage that looks very much like the real page of whatever company the scammer is masquerading as. The victim is then prompted to enter information such as social security number, passwords, PIN numbers, etc on the website. The phisher captures this information and the scam is completed. The phisher then uses this captured information or sells it to other thieves. By the time the victim realizes their identity has been stolen they often don't even remember entering this information into the phony website.
Keep an eye on your credit report
It is recommended to check your credit report at least once per year. If anyone has tried to open new credit with your identity, this is the best way to discover it. Most credit agencies allow you to receive one free credit report per year, and in some states they are required by law to provide your credit report upon request. Requesting a copy of your credit report online is fast, safe and easy.
Phishers now phishing via telephone
"In a new twist on phishing, fraudsters are sending out e-mails that attempt to trick people into sharing personal information over the phone.
Cloudmark, a San Francisco-based e-mail security company, said it has seen two separate attacks this week. In both cases, the spammed message warns of a problem with a bank account and instructs the recipient to dial a phone number to resolve it, the company said in a statement published Tuesday.
The caller is connected to a voice response system that is made to sound exactly like the bank's own system, Cloudmark said.
"The phone system identifies itself to the target as the financial institution and prompts them to enter account number and PIN," Cloudmark said."
Microsoft's Guide To Preventing Identity Theft
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phishing email scams
I get these phishing scam emails all the time. Now I just delete them.