Internet Tips & Tricks
By MARK DAVIS
General Manager, CommSpeed Internet Service
Vice
President, Prescott Computer Society
Visit the Computer Society Website
www.prescottcomputersociety.org
Phishing Scams
(FISH.ing) pp. Creating a replica of an
existing Web page to fool
a user into submitting personal, financial, or password
data. —adj.
Recent phishing victims include Bank of America, Best
Buy, Earthlink, PayPal and eBay. People were directed
to Web pages that looked nearly identical to the
companies' sites.
Phishing had its coming out recently when the FBI
called it the "hottest, and most troubling, new scam on
the Internet." The name appears to have no connection
to the band Phish, an FBI spokesman said.
The
term phishing comes from the fact that Internet
scammers are using increasingly sophisticated lures as
they "fish" for users' financial information and
password data. The most common ploy is to copy the Web
page code from a major site - such as AOL - and use that
code to set up a replica page that appears to be part of
the company's site. (This is why phishing is also called
spoofing.)
A
fake e-mail is sent out with a link to this page, which
solicits the user's credit card data or password.
When the form is submitted, it sends the data to the
scammer while leaving the user on the company's site so
they don't suspect a thing.
How to avoid getting “hooked” by a phishing scam.
-
If you receive an unexpected email saying your account
will be shut down unless you confirm your billing
information, do not reply or click any links in the
e-mail body.
-
Before submitting financial information through a Web
site, look for the "lock" icon on the browser's status
bar. It means your information is secure during
transmission.
-
If you are uncertain about the information, contact the
company through an address or telephone number you know
to be genuine.
-
If you unknowingly supplied personal or financial
information, contact your bank and credit card company
immediately.
-
Suspicious email can be forwarded to
uce@ftc.gov, and
complaints should be filed with the state attorney
general's office or through the FTC at
www.ftc.gov.
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