|
Phishing - What It Is and How to Avoid Identity Theft.
|
By Angela Daley
[Hits: 23632]
|
|
Phishing is a term used to describe a type of spam that aims tosteal your identity. It can be attempted through email, instantmessages, or pop-up windows. Phishers seek to convince theirpotential victims to provide personal data such as credit cardnumbers, passwords or account information.
Sophisticated phishing scams appear to come from reliablesources such as your bank or credit card company. Logos, webaddresses and information taken directly from legitimate sitesare copied and altered to lead the reader to respond to theserequests.
There are a few simple steps you can take to protect yourselffrom phishing scams. For example, don't follow the links in anemail to your bank or credit card's website. Instead, type theaddress directly into your browser. Also, don't give outpersonal information on a website that isn't secure. To tell ifa website is secure, check for "https://" in the address barrather than just "http://". The 's' stands for 'secure'. Be waryof any emails that ask you to update, confirm, or validate youraccount information.
Try to review your printed account statements regularly. If youbelieve you are an identity theft victim, you can file acomplaint with the FTC at www.ftc.gov in addition to filing apolice report. You should also call the toll-free fraud numberof any one of the three nationwide consumer reporting companiesand place an initial fraud alert on your credit reports.
|
|
|
|
|
|
