What are phishing scams and how can I avoid them?

Phishing attacks or scams are when a hacker pretends to be a website you know and trust in order to get you to reveal your password, social security number, credit card number, or other personal information. These are usually emails that look like they come from your bank, credit card company, Google, or PayPal, asking you to click on a link to “verify your information.” Those links often take you to a copy-cat version of the website you are expecting. Any information you enter into the fake website will be recorded by the attacker and usually used to commit identity theft. To avoid phishing scams, never ever click on a link in an email that is asking you for personal information or to “verify your account.” Instead open a new browser window and manually type in the well-known address of the website by hand (like www.bankofamerica.com). If the company really needed you to log in and verify your information, that should be the first thing it says when you log in.

If you are curious about these phishing emails, Apple’s mail program has a feature — if you hover the mouse over a link in an email, it will show the actual web address that the link will take you to. So you may see www.bankofamerica.com in the email, but if you hover over that, you may see that the link actually goes to www.bankofamerica.com.ru or some other address which is NOT Bank of America at all. But the best advice is to simply NEVER click on web links in emails.

Another email scam usually involves someone in Africa who needs help getting ten million dollars out of the country since someone died. They would be happy to give you a million or so if you can just give them a few thousand dollars to help them get to America. There is no easy money in this world. If it sounds too good to be true, assume it is. You’ll never see your money again. Check out examples and more types of email scams in the FAQ entry, "Email Scam Examples."

Phishing Scam Examples
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Published March 24, 2009 12:00 PM
Last modified on October 19, 2009 7:24 PM