What is a Phishing Scam?

Phishing is a term that refers to identity thieves, criminals, or simply troublemakers attempting to fraudulently acquire your important information. It’s called phishing because the scammer usually attempts to get the information from thousands of people - hoping one or two will fall for the trick, like fishing and hoping a fish will for the bait. Typically, they’re looking for passwords to your accounts or financial information such as your credit card number or your bank account number. In most phishing scams, the criminal contacts you by e-mail or another form of online messaging pretending to be from a legitimate institution, such as your bank, an online service, or anything else that might need your personal information. They’ll ask you very professionally for a piece of your personal information, to “update” or “confirm” their records. Some scammers can make their messages appear to truly be from a real organization, making it difficult to tell if they are legitimate. Thieves can even create websites that appear to actually belong to real companies. Once they’ve got your information, the thieves can go wild in charging items to your credit card, draining your bank account, or doing damage to your online reputation by sending out spam mail from your address. Being involved in a phishing scam has the potential to be a very messy situation so it’s important that you know what to look out for online.

Some Common Phishing Scams Online

When phishing first came about in the mid 1990’s, it mainly took place over AOL’s instant messenger program. Scammers would send users instant messages, claiming to need their billing information in order to continue their service. Since then, they’ve definitely evolved in their practices. The most common phishing scams take place through email now. One of the most common involves the online money exchange service PayPal. Thieves send an e-mail that appears to be from PayPal with a link directing them to their own website that asks for their personal details. These schemes have had some success fooling people because they mirror PayPal so well. Another common phishing scam occurs over the popular networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook. Some scammers have used computer viruses or worms to take control over user’s identities, which they then use to post links that are capable of stealing log-in information if clicked on. While phishing is a dangerous online phenomenon, it is completely avoidable. Always be wary of giving your personal information out online and make sure it’s going to a secure source if you must. By being careful with your information and deleting suspicious emails, you’ll keep yourself out of any future phishing scams.

Additional Resources

• Boiler rooms, phishing and evil twins: how the fraudsters make millions