Man Sentenced in Phishing Scam
With yesterday's announcement of the conviction and sentencing of a British man on charges stemming from his phishing scam, in which he stole personal financial information from 160 people and stole $360,000, it is a good time to remind users how to steer clear of the phishers. Link to news story.
First, what is phishing? Do you ever get those mysterious e-mails from E-Bay, PayPal or Chase bank that ask you to update your account information... except you don't have an account there? That is a phishing scam. Basically, a spammer, gets your e-mail address and sends you an official looking e-mail asking you to update your account information.
If you are naiive enough to click the link in the e-mail, it will take you to a site that is designed to look like the company's official site and will usually be hosted on a site that on first glance looks genuine. For example, you will be on http://www.yafoo.com. Or you will be on http://chase.1297-4b21.com, which would appear to be a Yahoo site and Chase site, respectively, unless you are looking closely and/or know what to look for.
Be careful. The phishers are out there and they want your money. Your best bet is to be diligent. Treat your personal information on Internet the same way you'd treat your wallet at Mardi Gras. I recommend reading Wikipedia's tips for avoiding phishing scams, here.
Stay safe.
First, what is phishing? Do you ever get those mysterious e-mails from E-Bay, PayPal or Chase bank that ask you to update your account information... except you don't have an account there? That is a phishing scam. Basically, a spammer, gets your e-mail address and sends you an official looking e-mail asking you to update your account information.
If you are naiive enough to click the link in the e-mail, it will take you to a site that is designed to look like the company's official site and will usually be hosted on a site that on first glance looks genuine. For example, you will be on http://www.yafoo.com. Or you will be on http://chase.1297-4b21.com, which would appear to be a Yahoo site and Chase site, respectively, unless you are looking closely and/or know what to look for.
Be careful. The phishers are out there and they want your money. Your best bet is to be diligent. Treat your personal information on Internet the same way you'd treat your wallet at Mardi Gras. I recommend reading Wikipedia's tips for avoiding phishing scams, here.
Stay safe.
3 Comments:
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An informative and necessary post. Necessary because every day millions of people sign on with an ISP for the first time and are oblivious of the pitfalls and dangers lurking in unfamiliar territory.
Please also see a related article 'Phishing: Preying on the Un-informed' published on the InstaPLANET Satellite site at
http://instaplanet.blogspot.com/2005/11/phishing-preying-on-un-informed.html
Thanks for posting on this topic!
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I agree too; there's an explosion of phishing atempts online now. I was considering myself mature enough to recognize them; but recently I was mislead by a paypal simulation, that was extremelly credible and very well made. I had to call paypal to make sure my counter-measures were appropriate enough.
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Postscript to our earlier comment (see above)
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For those interested in further reading, a link to the InstaPLANET ^Email Hygiene^ article.
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Let's stop phishing gangs dead in their tracks by staying informed and alert!
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