Talkin' Tech page provides
guidelines for:
What is Phishing
How to Spot a Scam
I received an Email
Helpful Links
"Your
account will be suspended," "Update your Account,"
"Unauthorized Account Access" and "Warning
Message"
are some of the alarming subject headers
that may greet you when you open your email. Emails with these
subjects are generally not legitimate, but are phishing scams. In 2007, phishing
scams cost the American public nearly
3.2 billion dollars; however,
you can
avoid
being hooked by a phishing scam
with the best known defense,
education.
Click on any word in
red
to
see more information on that topic!
What
is a phishing scam?
A
phishing scam
is an email sent to a user falsely claiming to be a
legitimate establishment in order to scam the user to
surrender their private information. The email directs the
user to a website to enter personal information, such as
passwords, social security or bank numbers, and/or credit
card information. Please keep in mind a real organization,
such as your bank, will not need to solicit this
information. Once you have entered information and clicked
Continue or Submit, the information is obtained by the
scammer. The scammer may then use your personal information
and commit acts of identity theft.
Take a quiz and see if you can recognize a "fake email" when
you receive one.
Phishing and Spam IQ Quiz |
How to
Spot a Phishing
Scam
To the
uneducated eye, a phishing scam is often
difficult to spot. A phishing
email attempts to convince recipients
that the email is real by
including
trade names, logos, copyrights and
registered symbols.
Here are
some things to look for and consider:
- Do
you have an account with
the company or
organization? If not
delete it
-
Is the email addressed
to you specifically or
to valued customer? If
the email does not
specifically address
your account,
it's probably
is a phishing scam.
-
Does the email threaten
action unless you
respond or take action?
If yes, then it is
probably a phishing
scam. Delete the email
- Are
there any spelling
errors? If yes, delete
the email
If you
do click on the link in the email, there
are further clues that this is a
phishing scam
-
Look at the address bar.
Is this the company's
website address?
Also, look to see if
https:// is the address
line. If not, this is
probably a phishing scam
- Is
there a
in the lower right
corner of the webpage?
If not, this is a
phishing scam.
- Is
the webpage asking you
for personal information
that the company should
already have? If
yes, delete the email.
-
Go to the website
instead of clicking on
the link in the email.
If the company has any
important information,
it will be posted on the
website.
I received a phishing scam
email. Now what!
If you were able to identify an email as a phishing scam, don't click
on the link or respond to the email. Please forward the email
to Federal
Trade Commission's email address and to the company, bank or
organization being impersonated. After forwarding the email,
please permanently delete the item by pressing the shift and delete
keys. Do not forward the email to other computer users.
Taken from
United States
Department of Justice
"If you think
you've become a victim of identity theft
or fraud, act immediately to minimize
the damage to your personal funds and
financial accounts, as well as your
reputation. Here's a list -- based in
part on a
checklist
prepared by the
California Public
Interest Research Group (CalPIRG)
and the
Privacy Rights
Clearinghouse
-- of some actions that you should take
right away:
-
Contact the
Federal Trade Commission
(FTC)
to report the situation,
whether
Online,
- By
telephone toll-free at
1-877-ID THEFT
(877-438-4338) or TDD at
202-326-2502, or
- By
mail to Consumer
Response Center, FTC,
600 Pennsylvania Avenue,
N.W., Washington, DC
20580.
Under the
Identity Theft
and Assumption Deterrence Act
, the
Federal Trade
Commission
is responsible for receiving and
processing complaints from people who
believe they may be victims of identity
theft, providing informational materials
to those people, and referring those
complaints to appropriate entities,
including the major credit reporting
agencies and law enforcement agencies.
For further information, please check
the
FTC's identity
theft Web pages
. You can also call your local office of
the
FBI
or the
U.S. Secret
Service
to report crimes relating to identity
theft and fraud."
Further Information
on Spam
:
Fighting ID Theft
Federal Trade Commission
Hoax-Slayer
Consumer Fraud
Consumer Information
|
