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I Heard of Fishing, but what is Phishing?

Did you receive an e-mail stating that you have to update your personal information and to do so; you need to click the link provided below from one of the business names with whom you have had business in the past? If yes, please do not give information like passwords, credit card numbers, social security number, bank account number, etc. Let me tell you why you shouldn’t provide this information. It is because these e-mails are sent with the sole purpose of stealing your personal information. If you part with the requested information, I’m sorry; you are “phished.” In these instances, it is always better to call up the organization and verify with them about whether they really sent such e-mails.

Pronounce “phishing” as “fishing.” What is phishing? It is simply stealing your personal information in the pretext of an e-mail, which claims to be sent by an established, legitimate business. The motive of a phisher is to get the required personal information from you without forcing you to do so.

Analyze each and every e-mail that requests you to give away your personal information as this will help you from being phished. When you look at the “from” field of the e-mail, it is definitely impossible to find out that the particular e-mail is a scam. It is because the “from” field will have the same .com address and when you click on the link where the information has to be updated, they too would look very similar to the legitimate site.

All phishers are generally professional criminals. They really have spent most of their time in activities like creation of authentic looking e-mails. It is definitely very easy to change the address in the “from” field. Therefore, do not deceive an e-mail by just looking at the e-mail address. Some phishers even go the extra mile by copying the logos and images that are present in the official website to create an impression that this particular e-mail is sent by one of the recognized business names.

How do you check whether a particular clickable link is legitimate or not? One of the easiest and quickest ways to find the legitimacy of a clickable link is to point the cursor on the clickable link and to look at the bottom left hand corner of your system’s screen. It will display the real address of the website to which you are been redirected to.

A golden rule that you can follow to avoid phishing is not to click such links and deleting them as soon as you receive them in your inbox. Do not even keep such e-mails in your trash can. If you really think that it is from your bank or organization with which you have had business, type in the full URL in your web browser and check whether they have really requested for such information. You may even try calling up the organization to check for any such communications from them before clicking an email link.

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