The Facts About Email Phishing

Email phishing is a term used to describe emails sent by fraudsters that are designed to con you into sending them your personal account details. These details are then used by fraudster to empty your bank account or to commit identity theft.

Emails from banks and credit card companies often include partial account numbers. However, recent research has shown that the public do not typically distinguish between the first few digits and the last few digits of an account number—a significant problem since the first few digits are often the same for all clients of a financial institution. People can be trained to have their suspicion aroused if the message does not contain any specific personal information.

Banks, finance companies and other finincial institutions do not disclosed your email address to anybody. Usually these conmen buy your email address from another source. The emails they send appear to come from your bank or buidling society. They normally ask you to click on a link to rectify a suggested problem.

So how do you spot a phishing email when they look just like your usual bank’s email including along with Bank logo.The instructions seem quite plausable because they mention the magic word “security”. The first tell tale sign is the “Dear Customer” instead of your name. Banks always address emails to the customers name and as a further security measure add your post code.

Banks NEVER ask you for your personal details in an email to upgrade your security or even to upgrade the account. Another give away is the spelling mistakes and bad grammar.

Never click on the link to your bank in an email because although it looks genuine the fraudsters will be using a redirect to go to the phishing site. Always go to your browser and type in the bank’s url or just type the bank’s name into google search and you will know you are on the correct domain. Check the browser bar shows https when you reach the site this means it is a secure and safe site.

If any email raises your suspicions, regardless of who it is from, your best option is to delete it immediately. Phishing emails can contain viruses which are activated when opened. Vigilance is the key when going online and receiving emails.

Anti-phishing software consists of computer programs that attempt to identify phishing content contained in websites and e-mail. It is often integrated with web browsers and email clients as a toolbar that displays the real domain name for the website the viewer is visiting, in an attempt to prevent fraudulent websites from masquerading as other legitimate web sites. Anti-phishing functionality may also be included as a built-in capability of some web browsers.

The bottom line: phishing scams are just going to get more and more sneaky. In order to avoid being caught, you’re going to have to be very wary of any attempt to retrieve your personal information, and take proper security procedures everytime you’re on the Web.

 

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