Protect yourself from eMail Phishing scams.

Phishing Scams.

Phishing is one of the oldest methods of fraud online. Thieves will try to gain personal details about you such as your passwords, bank account information or enough details to commit identity theft. As with most cyber crime the best way to prevent being taken advantage of is to know what to look for in the first place.

Email Phishing.

This is the most common form of phishing attempt and perhaps one you may be familiar with. By attempting to appeal to base instincts, the phishing emails that you receive will have attention grabbing subjects. You may receive a hefty bill from a company that you may or may not be familiar with, a threat of legal action or even a message using a close friend’s name to ask for help. Usually these emails will play upon emotions to get the viewer to follow through to a fake website where, when trying to log on, will capture your information and send it on to the criminal. The spoof websites used appear legitimate, often taking images and content from official sources to emulate the style of, for example,Apple’s website.

How to deal with a fraudulent email:

• Spelling and grammar mistakes. Often phishing scams are operated by someone whose first language may not be English. Simple grammar mistakes and spelling issues are not common in correspondence with large companies!

• On many computers a website’s address is visible when you hover over a link in an e-mail. If this doesn’t look like it leads to the correct website – be wary!

• Many companies will have other methods of getting in touch with you. If someone has sent an e-mail requesting something such as bank details or login information then don’t provide this.

• Never open an attachment from an email that you don’t recognise. You’ll notice that most companies may send information such as an invoice in an email but this will never take the form of an attachment.

• Ignore any offers that appear too good to be true – it’s highly unlikely to win the lottery but even more so if you don’t recall entering.

If you have been subject to an eMail Scam - email : support@farpoint.co.uk