Phishing Email

These emails appear to be a message from your bank, a financial institution or even a government agency.

The fraudulent email is designed to encourage you to disclose personal information such as your account number, PIN number, Social Security number, username, security number, etc.

Now we all know that we should keep such information strictly to ourselves so how can a scam email persuade, or trick, a victim to give it up?

These emails can be works of art, very deceptive art. They can be crafted to look exactly like a message from your bank, or whoever. Same logo, same color scheme, same font, same everything. Some fraudulent emails are not so well crafted and are therefore not so successful.

The header message may be designed to induce fear, such as “Your Account Will Be Closed In 48 Hours.” Or the header message may provoke excitement, such as “Your Account Has Been Upgraded.” Either way, it will be designed to prod you into opening and reading the email.

Phishing Email. Keep your browser up to date. The newer the version the more security measures it is likely to have.

You may read that there has been some suspicious activity with your account, and as part of the bank's fraud prevention measures they will shut your account down unless you confirm a few details.

To do this you will need to log into their secure website. They kindly provide a link, or a button, for you to log in. You are concerned, you don't like the sound of “suspicious activity” and you don't want the inconvenience of your account being shut down.

You hover your mouse pointer over the link and click, up comes the site. You have seen the page a hundred times before of course and it looks just like you expected it to, nothing suspicious.

To log in you enter your username and password, perhaps a security code as well. On the next page you are asked for more information.

Before long you have given the fraudsters all the personal details they need, because of course, it is not your banks secure site you are on, but a cleverly constructed spoof.“Thank you” a message may say, “Your cooperation has ensured that your account is secure and will not be shut down.”

You are feeling happy that you can keep using your account. . . but not as happy as the phishing email scamers are feeling.

They now have access to your loot. They could grab a large amount,or take just a little, time after time - in the gamble that they will not raise your suspicions. But that's not all folks . . .

. . . they can also use the personal information they have about you to commit all kinds of identity theft. They can make your life a mess.

Does the email contain glaring gaffs or typos? Legitimate companies and institutions are usually very careful about the email they send out. Yes, real organizations occasionally do make errors, but scamers make them more often.

Never click on a link in an unsolicited email.

It must be stressed however, that perfect spelling and grammar is no guarantee that the message is legitimate.

Does the link look right? Any links in a phishing email may not match up to the company's genuine URL (hyperlink address.) When you hover your cursor over the link, the URL should show at the bottom of your browser.

The spoofed web address may show .net whereas your bank, or other financial institution may use a .com or .org address. The link may show as Your-Bank-Online instead of YourBank. Again the spoofed address may be a long and cumbersome string of characters containing YourBank within it.

Be warned though that the link can be spoofed to look exactly the same as a genuine one.

The golden rule to follow is to never click on a link in an unsolicited email - - no mater how genuine the email or link appears to be.

A bank, financial institution, government department, or any other legitimate company, is not likely to ask you to click on a link and disclose personal information.

Keep your firewall and security software up to date and never log on to the Internet without your security software running.Keep your computer's operating system up to date by installing the latest security patches.

Keep your browser (Internet Explorer, FireFox, Chrome etc.) up to date. The newer the version the more security measures it is likely to have.

Never open an attachment to an unsolicited email.

Never click on a link in an email that seems to be from your bank, financial institution, mortgage provider, auction site, a government agency etc. that is asking for personal information.

Never phone any number in an unsolicited email that is seeking personal information.

If you are concerned that the phishing email may be a genuine message, pick up the phone and call your bank (or whoever the message appears to be from.) Look up the number, don't use any number in the message.

If you need to contact them online. Open up a new browser window and type in the correct web address, not any supplied in the message. Alternatively search Google for the correct web address.

The phishing email can take many guises. You may receive a message telling you that you have a big lottery win. To receive your winnings you have to supply them with your personal details. You may get a spoof email that seems to be from the IRS, again the identity thieves are after your personal details.

Don't get your life messed up by a phishing email, remember the golden rule -- never click on a link in an unsolicited email.

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