What Is Phishing? –part 2 - Who Is Phishing For Your Identity?
In our computer basic training lesson today, we’ll be looking at some of the ways to determine “who is phishing for your identity”. In the first part of this course, we did answer the question “ What Is Phishing”?. If you still remembered, in part 1 of this lesson, I did ask you if you've ever received an email directing you to visit a specific website where you'll be asked to update your personal information? The website needs you to verify or update your passwords, credit card numbers, social security (if you’re in USA) or national insurance number (if you’re in UK), or even your bank account number. I hope you've not and will never fall into their trap!
So let’s carry on with our basic computer training lesson for today; shall we? So you instantly recognized the business name as one that you’ve conducted business with in the past. And what next? You quickly clicked on the usual enter button link and proceed to provide all the information they have requested from you. Unfortunately, you find out much later that the website is FAKE. You never knew that it was created only to steal your personal information; did you?. My dear friend, you’ve just been PHISHIED!
Do you still remember “What Is Phishing”?. In case you’ve forgotten, here is another simple way to define it: Phishing ( normally pronounced as “fishing”) is the act of sending an email to a recipient falsely claiming to have an established, legitimate business. The intent of the phisher is only to scam the recipient into surrendering his or her private information, and ultimately stealing his or her identity.
It is not always as easy as you think, to spot an email phishing for your personal information’s. At first glance, the email may look like it is from a legitimate company. The "From" field of the e-mail may have the .com address of the company mentioned in the e-mail. Remember I told you that they are well specialized in this criminal act? The clickable link even appears to take you to the company's website, when in fact, it is a fake website built to replicate the legitimate site, and 90% of them are very hard to dictate.
They are all professional criminals. They have spent a lot of time in creating emails that look authentic. Users need to review all emails requesting personal information carefully. When reviewing your email remember that the "From Field" can be easily changed by the sender. While it may look like it is coming from a .com you do business with, looks can be deceiving.
The only way for you to defeat them is if you learn all the tricks they will use to convince you. For the purpose of space and time, I can not cover them all in this article. But I did give everyone who read the first part of this article (“What Is Phishing”?) a link to check out an Audio E-book that will equip you with all you need to know in order not to be the next victim. You can still check it out after reading today’s computer basic training lesson; if at all you are interested.
You also should keep in mind that the phisher will go all out in trying to make their email look as legitimate as possible in other to convince you. They will even copy logos or images from the official site to use in their emails. Finally, they like to include a clickable link that the recipient can follow to conveniently update their information.
The simplest way to check the legitimacy of the link is to point at the link with your mouse. Then, look in the bottom left hand screen of your computer. The actual website address to which you are being directed will show up for you to view. It is a very quick and easy way to check if you are being directed to a legitimate site. But I must add here that they are even getting more and more sophisticated these days. They now have very powerful software’s they use to “Cloak” the website address. There by making it even more difficult to identify where the email is coming from.
Here is your best option and surely a great trick that worth your time for reading our basic computer training lesson today (“What Is Phishing”? Who Is Phishing For Your Identity?) . Always follow the Golden Rule.
You must never and ever, click the links within the text of any e-mail you suspect, and always delete the e-mail immediately. Once you have deleted the e-mail, empty the trash box in your e-mail accounts as well. If you are truly concerned that you are missing an important notice regarding one of your accounts, then type the full URL address of the website into your web browser. At least then you can be confident that you are, in fact, being directed to the true and legitimate website and not a BOGUS website. This my dear; concludes our computer basic training lesson for today on what is phishing, I hope you enjoyed it? Bellow is the link to your complete guide to protect yourself against all sorts of internet fraud. Have a nice day.
This Audio E-book will educate you more on all the necessary steps you must follow to completely protect all your internet activities. Check it out by Clicking this link: What Is Phishing?
Fredrick Ituma: Your Basic Computer Training Lessons at: www.learncomputerfast.com sign up for your free computer training lessons and master basic computer skills fast
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