How to Avoid Phishing

Most of these phishing mails looks as if they are written through a legitimate company and they include a link which looks as if they lead you to their website. If you keep your mouse on the link you will often notice a different URL address than you read in your email. It is already suspicious that these links doesn't match and if you should click you will open a site which maybe looks similar as the one of the company but in reality you open a site of a spammer who wants to get personal information.

They will often ask to fill in your bank account, your password, your social security number, your credit card numbers, address, telephone number and some other personal details which can help them to transfer money from your bank account, your Pay Pal account to their account or they can buy goods in online sites with the numbers of your credit cards.

Phishing emails often ask to review your account or they ask to check all your personal details or your account should be closed. It doesn't happen only with emails from banks, PayPal but it is also possible you receive some of such emails from your email account. It happens frequently you receive one to check your email account. You can be sure such mails are phishing emails because your provider or external email hosters, for example hotmail, gmail, yahoo will never ask such details by email. A bank doesn't ask either personal information by email. Another kind of popular phishing emails are these where they say that you have won the lottery and they ask to fill in some personal details.

Here is some good tips to avoid th

*Don't click on a link in an email where they ask for personal details. It is really important to check the site and if it doesn't start with https:// you can be sure the site is not safe. You only may fill in numbers of your credit cards or other bank information with sites who start with https://. Only these sites can be considered as "safe" for personal information.

* Install a firewall, anti-virus software, anti-spyware software and keep these software up-to-date. You need to install always immediately the last updates. It is also recommended to install the last updates of your operating system.

* Examine the link which is included in your email. You need to check if the link which you read in your email will transfer you to the same URL; don't click the link if you notice that you notice another link if you keep the mouse on the link without clicking. This means the link will transfer you to another website which tries to get personal information. This can be considered as identity theft.

*Use a phishing filter- A phishing filter is helpful for Internet user to get a warning when you receive an email with a link which is possible a fake website. In most cases these emails appear in a section of your emails which you have to check. It is possible the website is trustworthy and you can open the link but if you are uncertain you can best avoid to click these links. The filter tries to avoid you will download dangerous software on your computer and checks every time an updated list of sites which can be harmful for you

1) Don't fill personal information in such emails because before you know you are a victim of identity theft.

2) Log regularly into your online accounts and change your password at least once a month.

3) Keep your browser up-to-date and install the necessary security patches.

*Report possible phishing attacks by sending these emails to the real email address of the website. For example, if you receive a phishing email which looks to be an attack of your PayPal account you can best forward this email to the real email address of PayPal. You can also forward the suspected phishing site to a phishing report website which can easily be found by Google.

Phishing is a terrible problem which can cause a lot of trouble. It is important you educate yourself to recognize a phishing email. These mails are often easy to recognize because they will always try to get some personal information and include always a suspicious link which shows often a different URL address if you keep your mouse on the link.

Take the necessary precautions, use a phishing filter and don't click a link of an unknown sender and don't answer emails which ask for personal information are the keys to be safe against phishing emails.