by Leigh Goessl

Created on: November 13, 2008   Last Updated: September 13, 2009

Phishing scams are one of the more prominent scams occurring on the Internet today. These kinds of scammers, known as "phishermen" structure their scams to lure in victims to accept the bait they dangle, hence these scams have become known as "phishing".

The way it works is you log into your e-mail and open up your e-box. Along with the normal SPAM you've probably become accustomed to seeing, some of the e-mail subject titles scream with a title that demands your immediate attention. These are usually phishing e-mails because they are structured to grab your eye.

Phishing e-mails attempt to catch your attention with the sense of urgency they express. These e-mail subjects may be worded in ways such as "Your account is in jeopardy", "You've just won $2,000, claim your prize NOW", "Your account has been compromised", or "Update required IMMEDIATELY".

Phishermen are adept at social engineering and utilize these skills to tap into the curiosity of human nature. They hope their recipient is drawn to open one of these e-mails because of the pressing nature of the title. If you open it you'll likely find yourself greeted with a pressuring message to take immediate action to the enclosed directions.

Often the phishing e-mail will state something which they hope will stimulate you to follow their directions. They may state your recent purchase didn't go through and they need you to resubmit payment. Others will claim your account is going to be canceled if you don't enter current credit card information, others may claim your personal information has been compromised and they need to verify your identity ASAP.

The tricky part about these phishing e-mails is that many of them impersonate companies you probably deal with. Companies such as PayPal, eBay or Amazon.com are commonly impersonated because so many people do work with them and phishermen try to capitalize on their popularity. They are adept at carefully emulating these companies in hopes you believe the e-mail is coming from them.

The miscreants who lurk in the dark corners of the web attempt to hunt, or "fish" for information hoping they'll hit the right person who does deal with any of the companies they are impersonating. Since many people do use Amazon, eBay or PayPal, the odds are good the e-mail recipient may have one of those accounts and respond to the e-mail accordingly.

Often these e-mails are scoping out information such as account numbers, credit card information, personal identity data or other information of a sensitive nature. The reason the phishermen are asking is because they are dangling the bait of urgency or in some cases, financial gain, in hopes you'll grab it and they'll hook a big one. Even if they manage to nab one person's information out of thousands, they've still made a score.

The best way you can protect yourself is to understand how phishing works and be cautious with how you proceed. Never click on hyperlinks in e-mails, if you think the e-mail has a possibility of legitimacy, type in the URL yourself and go to the website that way. Additionally it is never a good idea to respond to the e-mails asking for any kind of information. Legitimate businesses will never ask for any personal information via e-mail, especially your password.

Unfortunately phishing scams are seemingly here to stay, but if you arm yourself with knowledge and learn how to spot the signs, you won't fall victim to one of them.

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