170 Spoons

Don’t Get Phished

Phishing is the term used when the bad guys try to trick you into giving them sensitive information on a fake website.  Wikipedia of course defines Phishing well. Microsoft does a good job explaining it also.

But here’s a simple video explaining it.

YouTube - Phishing Scams in Plain English

There are ways to protect yourself from phishing scams.  What I recomend is to use a browswer (like Firefox) that has anti-phishing alerts built in already.  You have other software choices as well (notice most are just good, updated browsers!)

There are a few tips you should just be aware of:

• You probably know it’s a common rule to not give out your social security number or credit card number over the phone if you didn’t place the call.  It’s the same with email.  If they contact you looking for information, don’t do it.
• If you got an email from what looks like a company you deal with and they ask for information, don’t use the links in the email.  Instead, log onto the official website and go from there.  Or call them.
• Don’t trust the web links, email links, or phone numbers in a phishing email

Any other tips?

Personally, I’ve found that using a good spam filter on email gets most of them out of the way.  For the ones that make it through, an updated browser can usually recognize the scam.