Phishing :: Computer Hacking Scams

Phishing The Oxford pocket dictionary defines phishing as the activity of defrauding an online account holder of financial information by posing as a legitimate company. This is what phishing is known for now in today’s internet driven world but it was not always the case. Phishing actually predates computers. Some people did it over the phone for years and they called it social engineering. So why would someone think of phishing some one? There is a simple reason: to exploit people. These people are commonly known as scam artists. What these phishers normally do is send out millions of scam emails posing as something or someone who they are not. Normally they hope for a few people who received the email to respond to them by clicking the fake website and provide them with financial and or personal information. Also, anyone who has an email address is at risk of being phished. People can increase their risk of being targeted if their email is posted on a forum or website. The people phishing can also get many more email addresses by using a spider. A spider is something that searches through many websites and saves an innumerable number of email addresses, every one it can find. So in a nut shell, phishing is very profitable for criminals because, they can attain millions of email addresses and potentially set them up for an attack at relatively no cost to themselves (Be al, 2006). There are some key factors and elements that one needs to help recognize if they are being phished. This scam often has three key elements or factors that will come about when someone is planning an attack. First, when checking your email and look to see who the email is sent from. It will often be from a legitimate company’s address. If the email address looks suspicious then be wary, but this is an easy obstacle for phishers to climb over. It is very quick and easy for someone to change the â€Å"from field† in most email clients to trick the person receiving the emails. Second, the email almost always will contain very similar images or logos that have been copied off of the real company’s website. Third, upon opening the email, it will have a link along with text saying you should click the following link to make sure the personal information is correct. When trying to determine if you are part of a phishing experiment, there are many little things you mig ht want to notice.