Phishing

Every day people enter various bits of sensitive information into websites that are designed to look like the real thing. The word used to describe online fraud carried out by this means is “phishing”.

Phishing attacks are typically directed at major websites such as web mail providers, banks, and online vendors. These attacks come in the form of emails asking you to verify your account or enter in some extra details for some service you’ve signed up for. It can sometimes be difficult to tell the difference between the real thing and an imitation with website, so here are some tips to keep handy.

1. Do not click on any links people send via email or chat, even from trusted friends, unless you can verify where the link leads. Any legitimate link should be accompanied by enough information about where it leads that you can trust it. Don’t hesitate to inquire what a link is about before clicking on it!

2. If you ever need to visit a website that requires a login, such as your email or Ebay account, do so only by visiting the website directly, or through a previous bookmark. Do not follow a link from an email to a website requiring a login, a large portion of links in such emails will be to fake websites that capture your details and take over your account.

3. Always check the url when moving from one website to another! Look at the address bar when moving to another website, if the first bit of the url doesn’t start with the domain name you want to be on, then close your browser window immediately. If wanting to visit facebook for example, and you end up on a site with a url of http://81.180.59.10/index.htm, then you know you’re not where you want to be.

4. Make sure that whatever browser you run is the latest version. While the best protection is being aware of what to look for and avoid, it helps to automatically have an extra layer of protection when dealing with online scams. Following are links to the various page browsers have set up to inform users of the protection they provide and how to make sure it’s on.

Internet Explorer
Firefox
Safari – no built in phishing protection
Chrome
Opera

Please let me know if you have any questions regarding staying safe online, I’ll do my best to provide the information you’re after.

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