by Maxwell Payne

Created on: July 30, 2008   Last Updated: February 26, 2009

Are you about to become a victim of an internet phishing scam?

Learn how to spot and avoid phishing scams.

Internet phising scams seek to trick you and strip you of valuable personal information via fake sites, misleading e-mails, and even clone sites designed to look like the original site you intended to go to. Phising scams generally work in one of two ways.

The first is the most well known which is via e-mail or instant messaging. You may recieve an e-mail or instant message saying the e-mail comes from the internet service provider or even a provider of another one of the services you use. (Such as online banking, internet services, etc). This message will generally ask for some sort of personal information which could be your log in information for a service or site, your ISP account number, or other information that would allow a hacker access to personal data. These generally say an account will be frozen or shut down if information isn't provided.

A twist on this is a popular e-mail regarding some dead dignitary or wealthy person that has no heirs and thus is looking for someone to claim their millions. The e-mail instructs the recipent to send personal information including name, address, date of birth, and banking information so that you can 'claim' this money. Similar scams are 'prize' scams in which you send personal information to claim a prize that you'll never get while giving hackers your information.

The second and lesser known phishing scam is more complex and can begin in e-mails but also come without warning. Generally fake (or clone) websites are set up that mimmick popular secure sites such as online banking sites, government sites, and even social sites like myspace and facebook. A link may be placed in an e-mail and disguised to look like a legit link. The email may appear to come from your place of banking, your social networking site, or other secure sites requiring log-ins. When you click the link you are directed to a clone site that looks identical to the official site but is not. Any information entered there goes to a computer controlled by a hacker or malicious software and not the official site.

Also viruses and malware can infect your computer and cause automatic and sometimes undetectable changes to the web site you thought you were going into. These redirects will often show little changes and can happen in seconds. Say you type in the site address for your online banking website, while typing the malware may kick in and automatically

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>