Phishing
What is phishing?? I hear you ask
The basics
This is when a fraudster sends out a spam email or text message claiming to be from a recognisable financial company. The email or text message has a link to try and get you to update your personal details or carry out a transaction. The link takes you to a fake website which looks alot, if not exactly like the original website. Any personal or financial information that you enter will be sent directly to the scammer.
Ways to identify phishing
Look out for any of these indications as to whether you have recieved an unsafe email:
- It is often impersonal, meaning that it wont be directly addressed to the recipient, where as you are personally addressed if you are being sent an email from the company, for example a bank.
- The emails are often written with out much care and so there are spelling errors and it may not be grammatically correct.
- You are normallyasked to reply urgently. It states that you will miss out on a special offer, or that your account will expire if you don't respond quickly.