How To Avoid The Phishing Bait
E-mail is one of the fastest ways to send information and messages. It is also the avenue through which most scams and frauds online are perpetrated. Many of the people online do not know about the phishing danger. It is therefore necessary that some anti phishing measures be taken to stop or lessen the effects of e-mail phishing.
Phishing sites
Phishing sites are websites that are camouflaged as a legitimate and trusted website (like amazon.com, paypal.com, ebay.com and even your bank). These sites are there to fool you and get you to give up your sensitive data like the password to your bank account or credit card. Once the phishers (i.e. the persons who sent the e-mail) get your personal info, they will use it to drain money from your accounts or engage in other crimes online.
Solution
Normally the e-mails from phishing sites are garbed as a warning. An example is the typical email that your bank account has been accessed and it is important that you take action now to fix this breach.
These mails generally come with a link for you to click. To find out if it is from a phishing site, simply put your mouse over the link and check the status bar located at the bottom of your browser to the left corner. If the link has within it a long html string containing a weird string of text that has nothing to do with the company it is purporting to be from, chances are it is from a phishing site.
Anti-phishing steps you can take
It is highly unlikely that you will be able to stop phishing. Nor will you be able to stop the phishers from getting your e-mail address because once you send and receive e-mails it is at risk. Here are some anti-phishing steps you can take to lessen your risk.
- Use a junk email address. By creating an email address to receive and send most of your non-personal emails and online transactions, you can keep your personal and private e-mail address for the more important things. You can use the free email providers such as Google, hotmail and yahoo.
- Vary how you write your e-mail address. When you are making e-mail contact with someone you can vary your address by using ‘at’ instead of the ‘@’ sign. You should let the receiver know what the change means.
- Keep your private email address private. Be very careful whom you are giving your e-mail address to.
- Get anti spam software. These can tell and protect your e-mail inbox from the bad sites and allows the good site to load on your computer.
- Do not click the link in those unsolicited e-mail you receive.
Phishing is illegal all over the world. To prevent yourself from being a victim of this illegal activity, you can implement these anti-phishing measures and make your Internet experience a hassle-free one.
