Gone Phishing

It is not uncommon these days to receive an email from a well-known, legitimate company alerting you to the fact that a recent online transaction had a problem. The email informs you that you will need to login to their website using your user name and password in order to rectify the problem. Since the email seems to be legitimate and the "from field" indicates that the email in fact, comes from the company, you click the link and login to your account.

A little while later you find out that the site, in fact, was bogus. The site was created with the intent to hijack your personal information. By entering your information, it was revealed to the owners of the deceptive website. You have just been the victim of a "phishing" scam.

Phishing (pronounced as "fishing") is the act of sending an email to a recipient falsely claiming to have a legitimate business. The intent of the phisher is to fool the recipient into surrendering their private information, and ultimately steal their identity.

An email that is phishing for information is usually difficult to spot. The email that you receive will have been carefully crafted to appear to be from a legitimate company, like a major bank. The "From field" of the e-mail will probably have the address of the company that it is purporting to be. The clickable link even appears to take you to the company's website. However, this is a completely illegitimate site created to look exactly like the actual company's site.

These phishing emails are never harmless. The people behind these emails are serious about their criminal activities. They have spent a great deal of time in creating emails that look authentic. You need to be very cautious about all emails requesting personal information. Keep in mind that most legitimate companies will not send you an email asking you to login to your account.

You should be aware that the "From Field" in the email that you receive can easily be changed by the sender. The email will look like it is coming from a company that you are familiar with. However, looks can be deceiving. Keep in mind that the phisher will go all out in attempting to make their email look as legitimate as possible. They will usually use logos or images from the legitimate site. Finally, they usually include a clickable link that the recipient can follow to conveniently update their information.

One way to check the legitimacy of the link is to point at the link with your mouse and observe the address in the bottom left hand screen of your computer. The actual website address to which you are being directed will be revealed here. It is a quick and easy way to check if you are being directed to a legitimate site. The address revealed is usually fairly long and complicated. For example, if they were masquerading as Amazon, rather than an address such as www.amazon.com/login, it could be something like www.amazon.mqrs.com/?login/142647/4598.php

Finally, never click the links within the text of the e-mail, and always delete the e-mail immediately. Once you have deleted the e-mail, empty the trash box in your e-mail accounts as well. If you are truly concerned that you are missing an important notice regarding one of your accounts, then type the full URL address of the website into your browser. At least then you can be confident that you are, in fact, being directed to the true and legitimate website.

By: Bill Westergate

Bill Westergate is a computer guru who frequently writes on technology issues. For free spyware resources go to Spyware Removal Free or get NoAdware for free and free your computer of destructive adware and spyware.

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