Phishing
What is Phishing?
Phishing is the dishonest practice of sending e-mails claiming to be from legitimate companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal details such as your usernames, passwords and credit card details which would involve the loss of money.
Phishing can also be done through calls and text messages.
Phishing Process
Phishing involves sending a link via an email to a website which looks like a genuine website. The receiver may be tricked into following the link and entering details such as their bank passwords or any other personal information on the website. This will then be sent straight to the scanner to which they will do with your information whatever they want to do.
How can you identify Phishing? This will help you to avoid it.
- Attachments: Sometimes the email will ask you to open up programmes and documents that have been sent with the email. They may contain spyware or will take you straight to an online form or website.
- Impersonal: They are not personally sent to you where as a email from the bank would have address you personally.
- Careless use of language: Spelling errors and careless writing styles is often a good sign of phishing.
- False links: If you were to look closely at the structure of the link you are asked to follow: for example, instead of ‘http://www.bank.com’, it might be ‘http://wwwbank.com’, or the link will contain elements which mean nothing to a browser, such as @ or a space.
- Urgency: Phishing attempted normally ask you to reply quickly. That you may miss out on the special offer or your account would expire if you do not respond soon.