This week we will be discussing scams and identity theft. This topic was a special interest topic suggested to me by an acquaintance who was subjected to identity theft and had quite a difficult time with the ordeal. I am sure that I can say she would never wish it upon anyone.
Phishing
Many scams and attempts at identity theft come in the form of phishing. Phishing is a type of online fraud in which a scam artist uses an e-mail or website to illicitly obtain confidential information. Scam artists will often copy an entire website that is designed to mimic that of a reputable company. Often you will see this type of site begin a financial institution or some type of website that deals with currency exchange. Bank of America, paypal, fidelity have all been subjected to scam artists using their image to trick users into signing in or filling out an application.
What They Want
Scam artists are usually after two things. First and foremost they are looking to obtain sensitive, personal data such as bank account information, social security numbers, and birthday’s. This type of information can be used to create new financial accounts such as credit cards which can further a scam artists identity fraud. Secondly, but not necessarily they are looking for additional computer access through the use of security vulnerabilities. Additional computer access is not as hard to obtain as most people would think. You can fall victim to this by simply clicking on a link in a website and ending up at a malicious website. Additional computer access can help a scam artist leverage further account information on top of what the information they already have.
How To Identify Phishing Attacks
If you receive an email reporting a problem with your account the first thing to do is check the address the email was sent from. The second thing to check is whether or not the address in the email actually goes to the company it claims to be from. Many times a scam artist will be able to mask the web address in the email, this can usually be revealed by hovering over the link. Alternatively if that does not work you can right click on the link and select copy, then paste it into notepad or MS Word. This will identify the true link of the website. It is important that you do not verify the link by browsing to it, as I addressed before it is possible to give a scam artist additional computer access just by browsing to a link that is set up to be malicious. An additional means of identifying attempts at phishing is if you receive an email from a financial institution or website that you are not a member of telling you their is something wrong with your account. Emails from companies you are not a member of are phishing scams, or spam advertisements.
Legitimate companies will NEVER ask for more information than they need, they will also never ask you for information they already have. If there was truly a situation with your account information the bank would send you a letter in the mail. If you still have doubt whether or not the email is legitimate it is far better to error on the side of caution and call a representative at your financial institution.
Tips to Stay Safe
For More Information visit
Cyber Angels
Consumer Fraud Reporting
If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.
Your blog is interesting!
Keep up the good work!