How To Protect Yourself From Phishing Scams

Identity theft is serious business for computer criminals today. These criminals are very resourceful and creative in their methods to get your personal information so that they can "become you" for purposes of obtaining and using credit, getting their hands on some of your money, obtaining identification cards and other fraudulent acts.

Today, it is very common for people to use money transfer services over the Internet. Paypal, NETELLER and other similar services are used daily to move money from one person to another to pay for purchases, services and other things. Computer identify thieves know that if they can get you to give them your user identification and password to your accounts, they can move money to places they want it to go and you will go through months before the money can be tracked or recovered, if in fact it can ever be recovered.

But, you ask, why would anyone give out their user identification and password to anything personal? Of course you wouldn't willingly give out this information. This is where the people who want the information get creative. They send you an email that appears to be from an Internet site where you transfer money or do other business such as make purchases using your credit card and have the credit information stored at that website. This email will tell you that you must log into your account immediately for some urgent reason such as someone has attempted to change your password or access your account. One of the most frequent scams is to receive an email that appears to be from Paypal or eBay that says you have to update your information or your account will be frozen. In the email, there will be a link to log into your account.

This type of scam is called phishing. The name refers to the fact that the thieves are fishing for your information. What the email actually contains is a link to a website they have set up that looks exactly like the website you think you are accessing, yet it is actually their own website, carefully concealed. The only purpose of this website is to get you to type in your information so that they can obtain it. The thieves will then immediately grab the information and log into your REAL account, making purchases or accessing funds that they transfer to themselves. By the time you happen to log into your account, the damage is already done.

Do not ever respond to an email that contains a link that may not be valid. Instead, log into your real account by opening a new browser window and typing in the URL yourself. If your service provider actually wants you to update something, they will have a means for you to do that on the website. In fact, most of the websites will never provide a login link and will tell you never to use one if you see it in an email. It is almost always fraudulent and can cost you a great deal in time and money.

Next article: A Personal Experience With Identity Theft

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