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What is Phishing?
Alarming numbers of Australians still do not know what the internet scam called ‘phishing’ (pronounced “fishing”) is, nor are they adequately protected versus it, a Galaxy survey has found.
Phishing is a type of fraud that tricks humans into giving out their personal and banking data through hoax websites or bogus emails which steal people’s personal information, such as credit card numbers, account data, usernames and passwords. Many of the hoax/phishing emails may appear to come from rightful and trusted business that you might have dealings with, such as, banks (eg. CBA) and online organisations (eg. eBay and PayPal), Internet service suppliers (eg. MSN and Google). The message may look rather authentic, featuring corporate logos and formats similar to the ones applied for lawful messages. Typically, these emails lead recipients to bogus internet sites designed to trick the client into entering their personal banking details. This info is then used to steal your money!
Because the emails look so official and convincing, they are very effective for criminals.
Criminals send out millions of these fraudulent e-mails to random e-mail addresses, whether or not they are a client of the organisation, in the hope of luring unsuspecting innocent persons into providing their personal banking details.
If the link is followed, the victim many times also downloads a malicious program which captures his/her keyboard strokes including any typed information, such as banking login details and sends them to a third party.
How to Identify E-mail Fraud
So, how do you know if the email you received is fraudulent? Here are a few things you must know:
- Your bank will NEVER send you an email, or call you on the phone, asking you to disclose personal info such as your credit card number, online banking password or your mother’s maiden name.
- Be distrustful of unsolicited emails that have a sense of urgency and warnings that your accounts will be closed or your access fixed if you do not reply.
- The email might assert that your details are necessitated for a security and maintenance upgrade, to ‘verify’ your account or to protect you from a fraud threat. The email might even state that you are due to receive a refund for a bill or other fee that it claims you have been charged.
- Does the email look professional? While some fraudulent emails may look professional at introductory glance, if you look more closely you may observe spelling and bad grammar, strange language or branding that is not rather right. Fraudulent emails are not personalised and, instead, are addressed in general terms, such as ‘Dear valued customer’.
- If you receive an email notifying you that an email cash transfer is being sent from a person you do not know, delete the email as it is likely fraudulent.
How to Avoid E-mail Fraud
There are numerous simple steps you may take to keep out of the way of getting the victim of phishing scams:
- Be skeptical. Fraudulent emails may look like they come from a real bank and organisation email address. If you have any doubts in regards to an email that looks like it is from your bank or a reputable company, contact them before responding to ascertain that it is legitimate. But do not use the toll-free number, email address or internetsite address provided in the email: they may link you to the crooks rather than the bank. Use a phone number, email address or website address that you recognise is correct.
- NEVER send your personal, credit card or online account details through an email.
- NEVER send money, or give credit card or online account details to any person you do not recognise and trust.
- Do not give out your personal, credit card or online account details over the phone unless you made the call and the phone number came from a trusted source.
- Always enter your bank or organisations internetsite using the web site address (URL) that you know is exact – use a bookmarked link or type the address in yourself: NEVER follow a link in an email.
- Review credit card and bank account affirmations as soon as you receive them to check for unauthorised charges.
- Check your credit report at least once a year by contacting the Australian credit reporting agency Veda – Tel: 1300 762 207.
- If the email links to a website, check the website address carefully. It’s easy to camouflage a link to a site. Scammers often times set up phony websites with very similar addresses (eg. interchanging similar-looking characters, so that paypal.com could be (and has been) spoofed as paypaI.com or paypa1.com. Similarly, a zero may be substituted for the letter O within a URL.) The longer the URL, the having little impact it is to conceal the unfeigned destination address.
- Do NOT cut and paste a link from the message into your Web browser — as cited above, phishers may make links look like they go one place, but that actually send you to a dissimilar site. Some scammers send an email that appears to be from a lawful business and ask you to call a phone number to update your account or access a ‘refund’. Because they use VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol technology), the area code you call does not reflect where the scammers actually are. If you need to reach an organisation you do business with, call the number on your financial affirmations or on the back of your credit card, or type in the web address yourself.
- NEVER enter your personal, credit card or online account selective information on a internetsite that you are not sure is genuine.
- On the Internet, whenever entering personal information, assure that you are using a secure website. Look for https:// rather than just http:// in the address bar of your Web browser as well as a closed padlock in the bottom right corner of your browser.
- Make sure that your computer is protected. Install anti-spam, anti-spyware and anti-virus software and make sure they are always up-to-date. You ought to also install a personal TWO-WAY firewall to act as a barrier to viruses and other external attacks and check for operating system patches and upgrades on a regular basis.
- Do NOT open distrustful or unsolicited emails (spam): delete them.
- Be cautious with regards to opening any attachment or downloading any files from emails you receive, disregarding of who sent them.
- Update your browser.
- NEVER use public computers to access private information. Internet kiosks at hotels and other businesses are commodious but many times have Trojans and keyloggers installed that gather and transmit your data to the criminals.
What Should You Do If You Receive a Fraudulent E-mail?
If you suspect that you have received a hoax email, you will have to take the following action:
- Axiom proposes that you treat phishing emails as spam and delete the email without delay from your Inbox and Deleted Items folder without opening.
- Do NOT reply to the email, and do NOT click on any links in the email, or open any files attached to them. Never call a telephone number that you see in a spam email.
- Spam emails are a proven method for propagating viruses and other not wanted programs. If you have clicked on the link within the email, finish a full security scan of your computer (to check for computer viruses, trojans and spyware).
- If you have responded to any email by supplying your confidential information, or believe you are a victim and have lost cash as a result of phishing activities, please contact your financial institution and the local police immediately.
Final thoughts
Criminals have learned that they do not need to pull a gun on you to get your wallet or purse. They’re using the Internet to steal your cash and identity! Take a few simple steps to stop them, and don’t become an identity theft statistic.
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