Tips on How to Recognize Fraudulent Online Retailers

The internet is not just for surfing anymore. More and more people are using the internet to converse with their kid's teacher, shop, and even bank. The convenience doesn't come without risks and the price can be high. Two ways that criminals can trick shoppers are pharming and phishing.

Pharming

Pharming can be difficult to catch because you can start on a legitimate site and be redirected to a criminal site that looks identical to the real thing.

Phishing

Phishing is email fraud, in which someone sends out a bunch of emails to random people. These e-mails will look as though they came from a legitimate bank or retailer and may even have a link to what appears to be a legitimate website. To see some examples of Phishing E-mails, check out Chase.

Pharming and Phishing have one thing in common. They are designed to trick you into giving away your personal information. These e-mails and fake websites will ask for credit card or bank information or tell you that you need to verify your address, PIN or password. The goal of these e-mails and fake websites is to steal your personal information and can end up costing you a lot of time and money.

Protect Yourself

Most online retailers and banks will not ask you to verify your personal information in an e-mail. If you receive a request, be suspicious and check it out thoroughly. Call the company that the email is supposed to be from, but look the number up and do not use one listed on the

e-mail.

US Bank's Online Fraud site recommends checking a website's SSL certificate to verify authenticity. You do this by clicking on the padlock (usually on the bottom of a secured page) and making sure that the certificate has the same name as the website.

Educate Yourself

Check out the game, Anti-Phishing Phil, for a fun way to learn how to recognize bogus websites by clues in the URLs and using your search engines. The Carnegie Mellon University Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory developed the game.