by Leigh Goessl

Created on: August 28, 2009   Last Updated: June 02, 2011

Over recent years scam artists have come up with all kinds of ways to commit identity theft. Phishing scams are one of the latest additions to the continuously growing list of email frauds.

The way phishing works is the phishermen attempt to lure and snare information from unsuspecting Internet users with a virtual fishing pole. The use this carefully constructed pole to phish for information from those who they hope will fall for their sneaky techniques of stealing personal information.

Phishing emails come in many different shapes and forms. Most attempts are designed in such a way where the sender of the email impersonates a common business or trusted person in hopes of convincing their recipients to adhere to their requests for personal information.

Expert phishermen are very careful of designing their correspondences to makes themselves appear legitimate. The craftiness of phishermen forge their emails so well they look like the real deal and if you don't know what to look for, it can be difficult to tell the difference between a faked email and a genuine one.

Here are some tips to help you protect yourself against phishing scams:

• Be wary of hyperlinks

It's always safest to go to the official URL of any company you have shared personal information with; this includes banks, merchants, eBay, or any other website you may do business with on either a regular or semi-regular basis. Phishermen like to spoof websites to look remarkably like a genuine company's website, prompt you for a password and then attempt to get your personal information.

Always ignore any hyperlinks that request information from you if you don't do business with the company, and be wary of hyperlinks that come in email from those you do. Unless you have requested a correspondence, be 100% sure the e-mail is legitimate.

• Don't eespond to emails that demand personal information

Emails that demand personal information probably aren't authentic. Genuine businesses are going to try and promote goodwill, not come across as bossy or pushy and demand you to share information.

Additionally, while they may be firm, they are not going to be overly persistent in their approach. Valid businesses will provide several different ways you can contact them for information; phishermen will typically only include web-based ways to contact the 'company'.

• Beware of attachments

Phishermen frequently use attachments as a cleverly disguised way to load malware onto your computer so they can

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