| Cyber crooks go "phishing"
© Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"Phishing," the latest craze among online evil-doers, has nothing
to do with sitting at the end of a dock on a sunny afternoon dangling
a worm to entice hungry catfish.
But, if you take their bait, this new breed of online con artist will
hook you, reel you in, and take you for every dollar you have... or worse.
"Phishing" describes a combination of techniques used by cyber
crooks to bait people into giving up sensitive personal data such as credit
card numbers, social security numbers, bank account numbers, dates of
birth and more.
Their techniques work so well that, according to FraudWatchInternational.com,
"phishing" rates as the fastest growing scam on the Internet.
Here's the basic pattern for a "phishing" scam...
You receive a very official email that appears to originate from a legitimate
source, such as a bank, eBay, PayPal, a major retailer, or some other
well known entity.
In the email it tells you that something bad is about to happen unless
you act quickly.
Typically it tells you that your account is about to get closed, that
someone appears to have stolen your identity, or even that someone opened
a fraudulent account using your name.
In order to help straighten everything out, you need to click a link
in the email and provide some basic account information so they can verify
your identity and then give you additional details so you can help get
everything cleared up.
Once you give up your information... it's all over but the crying!
After getting your information, these cyber-bandits can empty your bank
accounts, deplete your PayPal accounts, run up your credit card balances,
open new credit accounts, assume your identity and much worse.
An especially disturbing new variation of this scam specifically targets
online business owners and affiliate marketers.
In this con, the scammer's email informs you that they've just sent $1,219.43
(or a similar big but believable
amount) in affiliate commissions to you via PayPal.
They need you to log into your PayPal account to verify receipt of the
money and then email them back to confirm you got it.
Since you're so excited at the possibility of an unexpected pay day,
you click the link to go to PayPal, log in, and BANG! They have your PayPal
login information and can empty your account.
This new "phishing" style scam works extremely well for 2 basic
reasons.
First, by exploiting your sense of urgency created by fear or greed,
crooks get you to click the link and give them your information without
thinking.
Second, the scammers use a variety of cloaking and spoofing techniques
to make their emails and websites appear totally legitimate, making it
extremely hard to spot a fake website, especially when they've first whipped
you into an emotional frenzy.
The good news, however, is that you can protect yourself relatively easily
against this type of cyber-crime with basic software and common sense.
Most of these scams get delivered to you via Spam (unsolicited email),
so a good spam blocker will cut down on many of them even making it to
your inbox.
If you receive an email that looks legitimate and you want to respond,
Stop - Wait - Think!
Verify all phone numbers with a physical phone book or online phone directory
like www.Verizon.com
or www.ATT.com/directory/
before calling.
Look for spelling and grammatical errors that make it look like someone
who doesn't speak English or your native language very well wrote it.
Never click the link provided in the email, but go directly to the website
by typing in the main address of the site yourself (example: www.paypal.com
or www.ebay.com).
Forward the email to the main email address of the website
(example: support@paypal.com) or call the customer service number on the
main website you typed in yourself and ask if it is in fact legitimate.
Above all remember this:
Your bank, credit card company, PayPal, eBay and anyone else you deal
with online already knows your account number, username, password or any
other account specific information.
They don't need to email you for ANY reason to ask you to confirm your
information -- so NEVER respond to email requests for your account or
personal details.
About the author
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author
of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr-e articles
to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or
affiliate links...
Simple "Traffic Machine" brings Thousands of NEW visitors
to your website for weeks, even months... without spending a dime
on advertising! ==> Turn
Words Into Traffic |
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