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Many people are receiving what are called "phishing" attacks in their email these days. It's another type of hoax email with a more sinister purpose. These types of hoaxes are designed to fool you into giving up very sensitive personal information like your bank account numbers, PIN numbers, credit card numbers and expiration date, Social Insurance numbers (Social Security number for Americans), your real name in full, address, phone numbers, driver's license information, etc.
How Phishing Works
A phishing hoax works like this: You get an official looking email which is supposedly from a bank (it could be your bank or one that you don't deal with) or another company that handles financial transactions (like Paypal, or Ebay). A large amount of money is going to be withdrawn from your account unless you go to their site (with the link helpfully provided) and fill out the form provided.
If you click on the link, it will take you to a site or a pop-up window that looks almost exactly like the company's real site with actual logos that are stolen from the real website. These are known as "spoofed" websites. The form provided asks all sorts of information about you, your account number, and any other important information about your account and any other accounts you hold. It's pretty hard to spot the difference between the spoofed website and the real one - almost impossible if you have never been to the company's website before.
The Consequences of Falling for a
Phishing Scam
Once you enter that information, the scammers can use that to empty your
bank accounts, apply for credit cards, rack up charges, apply for
driver's licenses, rent property (and not pay the rent) under your name.
Basically they can recreate your whole identity and use it for illegal
purposes leaving you with the headache of proving to credit bureaus,
banks, law enforcement officials, etc that it wasn't you that committed
the crimes.
How to Protect Yourself
The best way to protect yourself is by knowing what to look for.
- If you get an email that is
supposedly from a bank, or online store or other website that deals
with financial transactions be suspicious. Have they ever contacted
you by email before? If they never have in the past, why would they
start now?
- The first thing to look for is how
they address you. If they are for real they will usually address you
by your real name (or the name that you have given them). A real
email will usually not address you as "Dear Customer"
- Is a reply required "immediately"? A
scammer likes to scare people into reacting before they have a
chance to think about the situation. Be suspicious of anything that
says that if you don't reply "right away" you are going to lose a
great deal of money.
- Are they asking you for your
passwords, account numbers, credit card numbers, social security
numbers (or SINs)? Ask yourself "Why?". Companies that you have
dealt with have all that type of information in their files. They
will never need you to give it to them in an email.
- Regularly check your bank, credit
card and other accounts. If there are any charges there you don't
think are legitimate notify your account providers immediately.
- Don't use the links in an email to
get to a website, especially if you think that the email is not for
real. Often the links will take you to sites that will attack your
computer. (I had this happen to me when I was researching a phishing
site for an article I was writing. I clicked the link and they tried
to download a keystroke logger onto my computer.)
- Make sure you have the latest
updates for your browser and operating system. If you do
accidentally click on a link, it might offer you more protection
than outdated versions.
- Always make sure you are using a
secure website anytime you enter information like credit card
numbers online. The way to check if a website is secure it to look
at the beginning of the Web address in your browser's address bar. A
secure site will start with "https://" not "http://"
- If you receive an email from a company that makes you nervous, then get on the phone to them, or visit them in person if you can to find out if it is legitimate.
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Page last updated January 26, 2008