Phishing Scams

No Phishing!

Identity theft is a serious threat and criminals are getting craftier every day. If your computer isn’t totally secure, your email and internet provide a wide open pond for thieves to “phish” for your personal information. Phishing is a pretty nasty piece of spyware. It’s important that you know what it is and how to protect yourself.

Phishers use all sorts of tactics to get you to their websites. They are a clever bunch, and obviously food-obsessed, as their main “tool to fool” is spam. Not just a mystery meat, spam is another word for unsolicited emails. Spam e-mails may have titles like “Hot Housewives Want You,” or, “Urgent: Reply to this e-mail or the world will end!” They may be less obvious in nature: “Hurry! Only a few fantastic bargains left!”

Spam e-mails are designed on purpose to play on your curiosity, fear, and greed. If you give in and click through, you will likely be asked for sensitive information. The phisher will capture this data, and the consequences can be severe.

While spam emails typically come from unknown parties, phishers have gotten smarter. They will pose as someone you you believe to be familiar to you. Here’s an example:

You may receive an email (again) that new friends have popped up on a social network site. (We'll call it “FaceSpace,” shall we?) So, you click on the link and are sent to a crooked version of the normally familiar website. As soon a you input your user name and password, the phisher has won. The thief now has access to your account.

“Pah! It's only FaceSpace,” you say, “I've only got a couple of slightly dubious photos on there, and I've not 'prodded' anyone for ages, it's not important.” But phishers also like to pose as popular bank websites too. Have I got your attention now?

If you receive e-mails from any party that you don't remember dealing with, you should be suspicious. Even if a familiar party is asking you to verify sensitive information online, beware. Follow your instinct, does something seem phishy? It probably is. (Admittedly, that’s a cheesy pun, but seriously, these emails can pose a serious danger!)

While it’s always better to be safe than sorry, you can’t just ignore every email you receive out of fear. Instead, you’ll want to protect yourself, so you can go about your business online. You can do this with anti-spyware spyware called Spyware Doctor. Now, initially I wasn’t wild about yet another thing to install on my computer. But once I understood the protection it could offer me from identity theft, I was sold.

Not one for installing complicated, expensive software, I was happy to discover Spyware Doctor is neither. You can get a comprehensive version absolutely free, and if you want to upgrade for all sorts of nifty advanced features, you can do so, for only a small investment. Spyware Doctor is easy to download and install, and once its ready to rock, it will scan your computer for any spyware and destroy it. It will then establish itself as the first line of defense for spyware like Phishing scams. As soon as you switch it on, its automatically at the ready, and you don’t have to worry about it.

Don’t allow identity thieves the opportunity to phish for your personal information. Be wary of spurious emails, and don’t ever reveal sensitive data without being confident that the requester is genuine. Your best bet is to eliminate this risk altogether and protect yourself and your information with a spyware remover like Spyware Doctor.