Phishing Attacks are a Favorite New Tool For Criminals
A relatively new means that criminals use to try and steal your identity, or personal information, is known as Phishing. This technique uses a technique quite similar to actual fishing - send out a bunch of emails (fishing lines) and hope to catch a victim (fish).
Phishing is where criminals send out emails to random recipients that look just like an email that you might receive from a company you do business with. The email will request that you visit a site to update personal information, such as password or name and address. The website that the email leads you to looks like the real company's website, but it isn't.
More attention from the press has been devoted to the issue of phishing sites due to the fact that these schemes have become more sophisticated and common. It is becoming more difficult for the average person to tell if they have become victim to a phishing attack as the emails and websites look incredibly genuine.
Phishing attacks can be thought of as a very innovative form of spam. Most spam is merely an advertisement trying to get you to click through to a website and make a purchase. But phishing takes this to a whole new level as they are trying to fool you into clicking through to a site and giving away personal information that is valuable.
Once you have fallen victim to the phishing attack and unwittingly handed your information over to a criminal, they can do whatever they want with the data. If you were duped into giving out your user ID and password for a banking account, you can be pretty sure that the criminal will be helping themselves to the available funds.
Attempting to notify the appropriate authorities about a phishing scheme really does little good. Most phishing sites are live for a very short time, just time enough to dupe a few unsuspecting victims into giving up valuable information. Then the sites are shut down and the thieves move on.
And because most of the large phishing schemes are run by overseas criminals, even if the authorities could track them down, there is little that they can do. Your best defense to a phishing attack is to not click on any email links and to protect your identity with some sort of identity protection service.
Phishing is just one more way criminals are using sophisticated methods to steal your personal information so that they can use it for evil means. Be wary of any email from a financial institution or other company you might do business with. And to be safe, never click on a link in an email so that you never have to worry about being phished.
Phishing is where criminals send out emails to random recipients that look just like an email that you might receive from a company you do business with. The email will request that you visit a site to update personal information, such as password or name and address. The website that the email leads you to looks like the real company's website, but it isn't.
More attention from the press has been devoted to the issue of phishing sites due to the fact that these schemes have become more sophisticated and common. It is becoming more difficult for the average person to tell if they have become victim to a phishing attack as the emails and websites look incredibly genuine.
Phishing attacks can be thought of as a very innovative form of spam. Most spam is merely an advertisement trying to get you to click through to a website and make a purchase. But phishing takes this to a whole new level as they are trying to fool you into clicking through to a site and giving away personal information that is valuable.
Once you have fallen victim to the phishing attack and unwittingly handed your information over to a criminal, they can do whatever they want with the data. If you were duped into giving out your user ID and password for a banking account, you can be pretty sure that the criminal will be helping themselves to the available funds.
Attempting to notify the appropriate authorities about a phishing scheme really does little good. Most phishing sites are live for a very short time, just time enough to dupe a few unsuspecting victims into giving up valuable information. Then the sites are shut down and the thieves move on.
And because most of the large phishing schemes are run by overseas criminals, even if the authorities could track them down, there is little that they can do. Your best defense to a phishing attack is to not click on any email links and to protect your identity with some sort of identity protection service.
Phishing is just one more way criminals are using sophisticated methods to steal your personal information so that they can use it for evil means. Be wary of any email from a financial institution or other company you might do business with. And to be safe, never click on a link in an email so that you never have to worry about being phished.
About the Author:
Author Harvey Warmuth thinks you should do all you can to protect your identity. Get more information by visiting his website: Fight Identity Theft
posted by Debt Consolidation Loan at
10:52 AM
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