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As we enter the holiday season, you may begin to see an increase in unsolicited emails – also known as spam or phishing emails.
What is phishing?
Phishing is the fraudulant process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by pretending to be a trustworthy company, or even a company you frequently do business with. Communications are usually via e-mail, to trick people into revealing sensitive information like usernames, passwords, and credit card data by pretending to be a bank or some other legitimate entity. The email often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one. Even when using server authentication, it may require tremendous skill to detect that the website is fake. Phishing is a social engineering technique used to fool users, and exploit the poor usability of your web security. Legislation, user training, public awareness, and technical security measures are presently in place in an attempt to deal with the growing number of reported phishing incidents.
A common tactic phishers use is to pretend to be from a financial institution or online retailer like PayPal and ask for information to be provided to prevent identity fraud, or verify your account. Phishers also use current trends, news and other popular topics to trick people into clicking on links. One e-mail about swine flu asked people to provide their name, address, phone number, and other information as part of a survey on the illness. Users of social networks such as twitter, facebook, myspace, bebo, and more are becoming popular targets.
How can you protect yourself?
- Check the email address. Does it say name@bankofamerica.com. Many companies use subdomains for email communications. In this case, you may see something like name@email.paypal.com.
- The single most effective preventative measure is looking at the link before you click it. In many e-mail clients, you can hover your mouse over the link and it will display where you are really being directed. You can also right click on a link and go to properties in order to view the full path. If the link does not look familiar, or is cryptic looking, DO NOT CLICK.
- The most important thing to remember is no company will ever ask for your personal information via email. If you suspect a suspicious email, report it to the agency it pretends to come from.
- Make sure you have up to date and reliable anti-virus protection.
Where can you report phishing attempts?
You can forward suspected phishing e-mails to reportphishing@antiphishing.org. Companies usually have an address to forward phishing emails to. Check the company’s website or give them a call for that information. Always include the entire phishing e-mail. Additionally, complaints can be lodged with the Internet Crime Complaint Center at the FBI.
Stay safe this holiday season and don’t be so quick to click on links. You may also become a victim of a drive-by-download which we will discuss in a later blog.
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never knew there was an email address to forward these scams to. thanks for posting this My Tech Team.