What Is Phishing?
Posted on June 13, 2008
Every year millions of innocent people find themselves victimized by phishing. No, I'm not talking about an American rock band or the art of casting your line into the sea in search of dinner.
Ok then, what is phishing?
Phishing is a scam in which criminals pose as legitimate organizations to obtain your personal information. They fraudulently obtain access to your accounts, take all of your money, and steal your identity.
The typical phishing scam works like this:
1. You receive an email that appears to come from your bank, credit card company, or another reputable organization. The email looks genuine and it even includes all of the familiar graphics and logos you'd expect.
2. The email explains that you need to verify certain information and asks you to log into your account by clicking on a link in the email.
3. The link looks legitimate, but in fact it belongs to the scammers.
4. When you click on the link you are directed to what appears to be a legitimate website. It looks just like the one owned by your bank or financial institution. Of course, this is just a copy site owned by the scammers.
5. Once you're on the site, you're asked to enter personal information such as your user name, password, account number, mother's maiden name, and Social Security number.
6. As soon as you've handed over your information, the criminals can begin accessing your bank accounts and assuming your identity to open new accounts. Some sites go so far as to install malicious code on your PC to phish for even more information they can use to scam you.
Once you've fallen victim to phishing scams, it can take years to repair the damage.
To learn how you can protect yourself and your loved ones from phishing scams, visit Scam-Alerts.Org
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