UNHCE Information Technology & Distance Education Blog

One of the newest trends in Internet threats is a process called “Phishing”. In it the user receives an innocent looking email from their bank, credit card company or even Amazon.com. Although “Phishing” uses a lot of different tag lines the most frequent message is that there may be a problem with their security, or your account. They then ask you to help fix/test/protect their system. They frequently ask you to go to there web site and login your information regarding your account. They even provide you with a handy link to go to the site. This could be anything from your social security number, bank account number, or credit card number. Once you log in to there web site they then own that information.

How do you know if you are being “Phished”. First you should be aware of the problem and view any and all messages you get, no matter what they look like, with a healthy sense of scepticism. Because of the nature of the web someone running this scam can download all the graphics from a web site and build an identical site. So just because it looks official does not mean it is! Second, realize that no legitimate business that you deal with will ask you to perform these types of activities for them. If you do get a official looking message check out the URL they give you. The URL will look very close to the actual address of the site they are trying mimic. For example www.amazon.com may be www.amason.com. If you are not paying attention you may overlook the misspelling and think that it is a legitimate address.

What should you do. First, don’t do what they want you to do! Second, go to the address of the business they are trying to use via a different method. Use your bookmarks of the site or search for it on a search engine. Don’t use their link. Once you go to the site you may find information about the “Phishing” scheme and what to do about it. If you don’t find out anything on the web site, call the company and report the “Phishing”. Lastly, DONT do what they want you to do! A good rule of thumb is never do anything contained in an email. This includes helping orphans in Nigeria, forwarding prayers, or helping a poor company fix your account.

For more information on “Phishing” and other related Internet problems check these links out. (They have been tested and are safe:)

http://www.antiphishing.org/

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1625219,00.asp

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/security?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

http://enterprisesecurity.symantec.com/content.cfm?articleid=3864&EID=0