Phishing

Phishing is a notorious term that has become associated with cyber crime. It refers to the practice of distributing false emails disguised as originating from legitimate companies with the express purpose of procuring account access details, sensitive financial details such as credit card particulars, or information that can be used to perpetrate identity theft crimes.

The most common email fraud phishing attempts come disguised as originating from various banks, Ebay or PayPal. A phishing email is usually very sophisticated in its setup but sometimes there can be some dead giveaways that immediately indicate the fictitious nature of the email to the end user.

Procedures for identifying internet fraud email:

(i) Phishing emails from a bank usually ask the recipient to verify his/her personal details. He/she is asked to click a given link. Banks, as a general rule, do not ask clients to update their details through email.

(ii) A phishing email form services like Ebay or PayPal usually contain warnings that the account has been suspended, or that there has been some suspected fraudulent activities occurring in the account. However, every phishing email requires the recipient to click a link or fill in personal details. It is not always an easy task to spot a phishing email. Many of the emails have a genuine look and feel to them. For instance, the phishing email that bears the name of Ebay contains the user's registered name and the associated Ebay ID. Precaution needs to be exercised to check the legitimacy of the source. The recipient email address has to be checked to ascertain whether it is a registered Ebay email or not. The 'my messages' folder in my Ebay, has to be checked for a copy of the message. Measures to take to protect from Identity theft emails:

(a) Do not open suspicious looking emails or attachments.

(b) Enter websites via the online interface, not by clicking on email links.

(c) Always check email links to determine where they are directing to. Often, the dead giveaway if that the links point straight to a third party website. You need to carefully examine all website links because often misspellings are used to give the appearance of legitimacy. Secure environments are prefaced by https:// rather than http:// .

The internet browser should also be kept up to date with all the latest security patches properly installed. You can also investigate third party solutions such as Mc afee which provide spam protection software that uses a rating system to assess potential credit card fraud emails and phishing attempts.

Privacy Policy | Contact Us |