I know most of you like to fish. Some like to just fish for the sport of it. Some like to just eat fish. Some just like to get in the great outdoors. But the type of fishing I’m referring to isn’t a sport. It’s for personal gain. Thing is, it’s not your personal gain that benefits. Let me explain.
Phishing is the act of a criminal attempting to gain your personal information electronically by either poisoned links in emails or on compromised web pages. Or by cleverly getting you to click a link in an email that leads you to a supposedly valid web page on which they hope to glean your private information such as logon details, credit card account information and many more things that you normally take for granted.
To put it bluntly, you need to be very aware of what you do online. More so nowadays than ever before. I mean, you do lock your doors at night or when you leave for the day to go to work, don’t you? Well, you need to be aware of any emails you get that ask for personal information or trying to get you to click a link in the email that supposedly takes you to a valid web page for you to validate certain credentials. Yes, they look authentic and the crooks take every precaution in making them look that way. So should you in making certain to not divulge anything that could be used to compromise your security.
No bank, credit institution, ebay, paypal or what-have-you will ask you for any sensitive information by email. Most highly recommend that you logon to your account manually (by typing the web address in your browser’s address bar yourself) instead of clicking any links in emails. Also, pretty much all of them would like for you to call them to report any suspicious email so they can advise you on what to do next. Some might even ask you to forward it to them for examination.
Case in point, A friend posted about the very same activity by criminals in an attempt to steal information about two well-know domain name registrars. David’s post gives good details about this activity and what the registrars are doing to combat it.
In a nutshell, if in doubt? Don’t click it! You’ll be glad you didn’t because after all is said and done, YOU are the last line of defense when it comes to your online security.