The Dangers of Phishing
By Lily van der Kroef
What is Phishing?
Phishing is the deliberate act of trying to obtain information such as social security, credit card information, bank account information, passwords, and e-mails for harmful purposes, usually through a facade to do so without one's knowledge.
Easy Ways to Prevent Phishing
There are over 156 million phishing e-mails sent everyday. So how do you know if you are being tricked? There are some easy ways to find out. Most professional e-mails will not include links, so to be sure, hover your mouse over the link to find out where you will really go if you click. If you feel suspicious of e-mails that ask for personal information, you can also call customer service to find out if the e-mail is in fact real.
Preventing Phishing Tips
In this e-mail, you can see that the sender of the e-mail uses the phrase "valued customer." If you are a valued customer, your name should be used.
Preventing Phishing Tips
In this e-mail, you can see that the sender has included a link to log in. The purpose for this would be to gain passwords to the bank. The sender also refers to the receiver as a customer, not by name.
Preventing Phishing Tips
When reading suspicious e-mails, one should always check for spelling or grammatical errors, because most real companies will not have any errors. In this e-mail, it states, "You are advice to follow the direction in the refference below."
What is Phishing?