How to Avoid Phishing Scams
Phishing scams are a type of scam that involves tricking an unsuspecting user into divulging account information to the scammer. Typically this happens when the scammer sends an email disguised as a legitimate business, usually some sort of financial institution. The email will look official, including the official graphics from the legitimate business that is being copied. And the message will normally contain some kind of distressing news, like the detection of suspicious activity on your account.
Readers see the official-looking message, are worried by the message, and immediately click on the link to take action, like dispute false charges on a credit card, or try to get an account re-opened that has been temporarily closed. Keep in mind that there really are no false credit charges, or the account has not been closed. But readers are worried, so they click to fix the situation.
They will be taken to a very official-looking site…one that looks exactly like the real site of the business the scammers are copying. For example, if the scammer claims that your PayPal account has been temporarily suspended and that you need to 'click here' to login and correct the situation, the screen to which you will be taken will look just like the official PayPal site. There, the reader 'logs in', by entering their login and password onto the screen. Once that information is sent, the scammer then has captured the reader's login and password. (The form was not really a login form, but a form to store the login and password into the scammer's database for use later.)
So, how can you avoid these clever phishing scams?
It is simple.
Never, never, NEVER click on a link from an email.
Let's assume that you received an email that looks like it is from your specific credit card company, stating that some fraudulent charges have been detected and they need you to 'confirm' that the charges are not yours. DO NOT CLICK from the email!!
If you are really worried about the contents of the message, why not just call the Customer Service number on the back of your card? Or login directly (NOT through clicking a link) to the site. All of the financial institutions, or places like PayPal and eBay, have internal messaging systems. If they want you to receive an important message, they send it to that mailbox, too.
Protect yourself from phishing scams…never, ever, click on a link from within an email message to respond to a business message.
Linda - http://how.best-free-information.com - The "How" Blog
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