"Phishing".........what is it?

[fussnfeathers]

This is a relatively new term, that perhaps many are unfamiliar with.

"Phishing" refers to the latest wave of scams, delivered via e-mail. These will be disguised as coming from a financial institution, such as a bank. These emails will typically claim that the bank is doing an audit of its online customers, and ask you to click on a link that will take you to a page, where you will then be asked to enter your account number and password, to "verify" that you are still an active customer.

These emails will look official, and the page they take you to is a virtual clone of the actual bank's website. Once you enter your personal information, you'll typically be sent to the actual bank website, and never know you've just given away all your money.

Do NOT follow any links in an e-mail from a bank, even if it's your own. No financial institution will ever ask you for your password via e-mail. Ever. If you're unsure, do not click the link in the e-mail, call your bank and ask them if they sent this email to their customers. I can guarantee they did not.

If you do get one of these emails, go directly to the bank's website (type it in yourself, or find it via Google if you don't know the address), and look for a security link. Almost every bank has an e-mail address to report these "phishing" emails to, I typically forward the email to that address, along with information about when I recieved it, so they can try to track down where it came from, and send out a warning to their customers.

I cannot stress this enough: Never click on a link that asks you for account information and passwords. Always, always go directly to your bank's site, and use the secure login there. Any other method is 100% a scam, and dangerous. Phishing has already cost close to $10 billion in lost funds, security issues, and theft in the US alone. Don't be one of the unlucky ones that loses everything.
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Big enough to scare you

[Google]

[HoseB]

I"ve recently been phished supposedly by PayPal..... where with each (of several) emails, they've escalated the urgency that I contact them up to the point of telling me my account has been frozen until I respond. All crap, of course..

[Yoshida]

A good thing you can do is foward your phished emails to spoof@paypal.com, helps them crack down on the people that do this.

also works with ebay, and prolly most major online companies.