Phishing is Another Form of Identity Theft
April 30, 2009
As a pretty new tactic, phishing is being utilized by criminal elements that are intent on getting ahold of your identity or gaining access to other information that is personal to you. They accomplish this by sending out bulk emails that look like emails sent out by genuine companies, in hopes to get you to click on links which take you to a site whose sole purpose is to get you to give up your information.
When using phishing, criminals create emails that are modeled after emails businesses that you have done business with might send out. Through these sham emails, you are directed to click on links that take you to a fraud site which too looks like the real thing. You are duped into providing them with personal information for the thief to use. This is a perfect reason to use a identity protection theft service.
Media outlets have been giving more attention to phishing exploits as they have become more common as of late. The whole criminal exercise has become very advanced, with it being very difficult to tell if you are in receipt of a phishing email, or have found yourself on a phishing site. Therefore, it is very critical that you be aware of emails you receive and links you click on.
Phishing attacks might be thought of as a form of evolved spam. Traditional spam is an attempt to convince you to click through to a site and buy something. The advent of phishing brings spam to a whole new level as they are attempting to fool you into clicking through to a website and giving away personal information that is valuable.
Of course, once you have given out your valuable personal information, the criminal organization then has free reign to do anything they want with it. For example, if they got a hold of your user name and password to a online financial institution, the criminal could gain access to your online account and do what they want with your information and money. Really, the sky is the limit.
These criminal websites are online for only a very short period of time, which means that even if you were able to notify the appropriate agencies about the criminal activity, nothing much could be done. All the criminals need is a short bit of time to dupe a handful of victims to provide the information the criminals are seeking, then they disappear.
And because a lot of the large phishing attacks are run by overseas criminals, even if the authorities could track them down, there is not much that they can do. Your best defense to a phishing attack is to not click on any email links and to use a good protect your identity service.
This phishing scheme is just one more way thieves are making use of highly evolved methods to get their hands on personal information belonging to you so so they can profit from it. Keep a sharp eye out for any email that appear to come from a financial institution or other company you might do business with. And to be safe, think about using a protect your identity solution.
Tags: credit repair
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