Phishing for Your Identity

Have you received an email directing you to visit a familiar website where you're asked to update youre personal information? The website needs you to verify or update your credit card numbers, social security numbers, passwords, identification numbers, or even your bank account number. Immediately you recognize the business name as one you've conducted business with in before. Therefore, you click on the link provided and proceed to enter all the information they have requested. To your dismay, you find out to late that the website is bogus. The site was created Soley to steal your personal information. What has happened is you have just been "phished".

Phishing (pronounced as "fishing") is defined as the act of sending an email to a recipient falsely claiming to have an established, legitimate business. The purpose of the phisher is to trick their victim into surrendering their private information. Ultimately stealing their identity.

It is harder than you think to spot an email phishing for information. When you first look, the email may look like it is from a legitimate company. The "From" field of the e-mail may have the correct address of the company mentioned in the e-mail. The clickable link even seems to take you to the company's website. In actuality, it is a fake website built to replicate the legitimate site.

A lot of these people are professional criminals. They spend a lot of time in creating emails that look authentic. You need to read all emails requesting personal information carefully. When reading your email remember that the "From Field" can be changed by the sender. It may look like it is coming from a site you do business with, but looks can be deceiving. Remember that the phisher will go all out in trying to make their email look as legitimate as possible. They will even copy logos or images from the official site to use in their emails. They like to include a clickable link that you can follow to conveniently update their information.

A good way to check if the link is legitimate is to point at the link with your mouse. Then, look in the bottom left hand screen of your computer. The actual website address to which you are being pointed to will show up for you to view. This is a very quick and easy way to check if you are being directed to a legitimate site.

In conclusion, follow the golden rule. Don't click the links within the text of the e-mail, and delete the e-mail immediately. After you have deleted the e-mail, empty the trash box in your e-mail accounts as well. If you are concerned that you are missing an important notice regarding one of your accounts, type the full URL address of the website into your browser. You can be assured that you are, being directed to the correct website.