« PDA Thoughts - Palm vs. Treo | Main | Upgrading Video Surveillance with Digital. »
August 1, 2005
"Phishing" Don't Involve Trout!
By now, I'm sure that most of y'all have received e-mails from banks, financial institutions, and eBay, saying that you need to re-login to fix a problem with your account. The catch is, of course, that you don't have an account at many of these banks, or you've never used eBay or PayPal in your life.
Those messages are from criminals who are on "phishing" expeditions. The criminal sends out an e-mail that looks like it originates from a bank, eBay, or PayPal. They tell you there is a problem with your account and suggest you click a link in the message to go fix it. If you click one of those links, you go to a login page. You log into your account and the site responds with a "thank you" for fixing the problem.
The catch here is that you didn't log into the bank or eBay. You just gave your login ID and password to a criminal who will now use that data to steal from you and the bank.
How can you avoid becoming a victim of a phishing attack? The easiest way is to never, ever, ever, ever, log into a financial website from an e-mail message. If you have to do banking business, or if you want to pay for something via PayPal, open a new browser window, then log into the website.
If you suspect you've been a victim of a phishing attack, contact your bank or financial institution immediately! Tell them what you did and that your password may be compromised. Treat the incident in the same way you would treat a stolen credit or debit card.
Posted by Edward J. Branley at August 1, 2005 1:01 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.nola-blogs.com/cgi-bin/mt/ruebourbon.cgi/36