What is Phishing | How to Avoid Phishing Attacks

Phishing Attack

Your Email is Enough for a Hacker to Rob Your Money !

What is Phishing Attacks ?

Phishing is a new method of Internet Fraud. It is an Internet Hacker fishing for your important and sensitive data like, credit cards and internet banking details by putting a bait to you in the pretext of your bank asking you to confirm your account number or ATM Pin code and such other data. Often hackers can send a form which looks genuine from the Reserve bank of your country asking you to fill it and send it to a certain email address or fill the form available at a certain link they provide. Most people not aware of this kind of Phishing attacks may believe it and actually part with their account number, usernames, passwords and pin numbers.

Who Falls Victim to Phishing Attacks ?

Anyone can fall victim to a Phishing Attack. Even if you do not use your credit card, debit card online and even if you do not use Internet Banking facilities, you could still be the next victim of Phishing attack. The Phishing attack is at times just to get your Email ID and Password. Email ID and Passwords allow the hacker to login to your email and read all your stored emails which may contain private information that they can use to blackmail you. Email login will gives the hacker unrestricted access to all your contacts to whom the hacker will send emails asking for money from your friends and relatives which is to be sent to some paypal id, bank account or the hacker may even send threatening emails, black mailing them. Some hackers want to get at your social networking usernames and passwords like your Facebook, Twitter and other accounts.

Is Your Bank Web Sites Phishing Attack Proof?

All the banks world over has already spent millions of dollars fighting cases in the court of law to retrieve money their clients lost due to Phishing attacks and other types of frauds. Today most companies and corporate are already spending millions making their sites hacker proof and have also done whatever they can to stop phishing attacks by continously sending their clients regular tips on how to avoid phishing attacks again and again. I am sure you may also have received emails from your bank asking you what not to do if a hacker ask you for passwords, pin numbers etc. But yet 1 in 5 people using credit/debit cards and internet banking fall victim to Phishing attacks even today. You could be the next because Phishing attack is a technology that hackers are improving at faster rate. When ou find a solution to one type of Phishing attack, they come out with a new phishing method.

Email Phishing Attack

Phishing attack is done by an internet hacker by sending emails to you. These Phishing Attack Emails will look exactly like the emails you would have been receiving regularly from your own Bank. The email will be asking for your credit/debit card details or your Internet Banking usernames and passwords. These details never ever asked by your Bank or Credit Card company because they already have it with them. If you respond to these mails and give away your sensitive information, then with in minutes these online hackers will transact all the money from your bank even before you can call your bank. Far too many people have already lost all their money this way. Never respond to such emails because your bank will never send you any email ever asking for your banking details.

Tax Refund/Relief Phishing Attacks

Very often hackers will try a phishing attack by sending you a very genuine looking email that may talk about a tax refund or tax relief that you are entitled to. If you believe what is written in the email and click the link, you may be taken to a website that will exactly resemble the reserve bank website of your country. You will then be told to give your bank account number and PAN card numbers, user names passwords, your email id to send the tax refund amount and receipt etc. If you are stupid enough to fall into this phishing attack trap and give away what the hacker has asked for, then your hard earned money will be gone in the next few minutes and you will be bankrupt. It has happened before and will continue to happen. So ensure that you do not fall victim to these phishing attackers.

Website Phishing Attack

Phishing attack is also done by mimicking your bank's website. The hacker creates a website which looks exactly like your bank website and even functions like it. But when you enter your banking details like your bank account numbers, passwords or security codes the sites may either close or redirect you to your original bank's website. Believe it or not, you will never find out that your banking details have been stolen, till you actually start seeing your money getting transferred even as you are logged into your bank account. The hacker can mimic most websites like your email host, p2p sites, social networking sites etc. Most internet hackers are good software engineers or programmers who may have even worked in banks and other organizations before. Some of them are self taught. The common factor is the bad intention with which they use their knowledge for Phishing attacks.

Duplicate CreditCard Phishing Attack

Very often hackers use methods for Phishing Attacks that you will never even dare to suspect. In many fairs and markets the hackers will cheat innocent people setting up shops with fake company names and will give away gifts just to swipe your debit or credit cards. When you swipe your credit card on a machine they will ask you to put your pin numbers. This gives them both your credit card details as well as the pin number. Then they will send this information to phishing attacker who will make exact replica of your credit card and debit cards. Now they can use your credit card legally and you can do nothing about it because even your bank or credit card issuing authority will not be able to differentiate which is the original card. Never hand over your credit card to anyone. When given for swiping after a purchase, keep an eye on your credit card till you take it back and never ever give your credit card PIN number to the shop keeper swiping your card because it is not required. PIN number is required only in an ATM where you do money transactions. This type of phishing attack is now becoming rampant world over.

Data Stolen during a Phishing Attack

A phishing attack can be to steal every bit of your important and sensitive private data that you use online and even those data which people normally never share online as mentioned below: -

Your Credit Card Numbers
Your Debit Card Details
Your Internet Banking Usernames/Passwords
Your Email Usernames/Passwords
Your Social Security Numbers
Your Telephone/Mobile numbers
Your Medical Status/Information
Your Driving Licence Details
Your Social Network Usernames/Passwords
Your Family Details
Your Salary/Financial Status
Your Company Details
Your Employer's Details
And Other Details you normally don't share

How to Prevent Phishing Attack ?

Phishing attacks can be avoided by taking a few simple steps and being careful when you are on the internet.

The first step to prevent a phishing attack on your PC/Laptop would be to connect your computer to the internet only after you have installed a good Antispyware Software or Internet Security Software or an Identity Protection Software in your PC or Laptops.
But that may not be enough to protect yourself from a phishing attack. Your bank website may be using 128 bit encryption to transmit your Credit Card Numbers and Internet Banking details from your PC to their site on the Internet. But a Hacker can capture your details when you are typing it into the form on your PC itself. Use Anti-Logger to protect your Computer from phishing attacks with an additional layer of Protection from Phishing Attacks in addition to your AntiVirus and AntiSpyware Software because AntiLogger software is very sophisticated and does not rely on Virus Signatures. So an antilogger can save you from even from Zero Day Viruses which your Anti-Virus cannot.
Check the address of any suspicious email designed for phishing attack that you receive asking you to send or update your credit/debit card details, internet banking details or email usernames/passwords, telephone numbers, security numbers, home address etc
If you know the address of your bank or other website then type that into the browser address bar and do not use the links you see in the suspicious emails. For example http://www.fixpcfreeze.com can be mimicked by replacing the .com by a .net website of the same name by the internet hacker for phishing attack.
When typing your email host use https:// instead of using http:// because most email hosts have implemented the secure site protocol. For example type https://www.gmail.com which is secure and not http://www.gmail.com which is totally unsecure and is not recommended. Now a days Google has already changed the default gmail.com to https:// to give safety to even those who do not know about it. But the case may not be the same with all the email providers and your own company email server could be hacked if it is not properly protected and configured by your administrators.
Some times you may get a phishing attack through email that tells you to click a certain link if you do not want to receive emails from them or telling you to unsubscribe. The moment you send a reply email, the hacker gets to know that yours is a valid email address. And then the hacker will start sending you dozens of these phishing emails. So never reply to such emails aimed at phishing attacks alone.
Never open any email whose id or source you do not know. If the email says it is from an institution you usually log into, then go to the original website and lodge a complaint about this source if you are suspecting a Phishing Attack.
If a site tries to redirect you to another website with a different domain name when you click a link on a website or your email, then you may get a warning given out by your browser. It may not tell you if this is a Phishing Attack. So read it carefully and allow a redirection only if you are absolutely sure about the authenticity of that website and doubly sure that it is not a phishing attack happening to you.
Regularly change your internet banking user names and passwords. And never write your usernames and passwords any where. Do not store these information on your computer making it easy for a phishing attack successful for the hacker.

Prevent Phishing Attacks

If you start seeing the money in your internet banking account is being siphoned off by someone after a phishing attack that you know has happened, then you must immediately call your bank and inform them. But this would take a lot of time.
An excellent trick you can use is to try to log into your own account at least 5 times. This will disable your account and has to be unlocked by your bank people which will require your authorization. This keeps hackers away.
Once you have done this, immediately change your Usernames and Passwords or Security codes etc immediately to protect yourself from phishing attacks.
If you use firefox as your browser then go to Tools/Options and go to the Security tab. Now remove the check mark from remember passwords. This is dangerous option as firefox starts storing all the passwords you type in and makes it easy for a hacker trying for phishing attacks on your computer to go there and steal all your passwords.
In the same firefox dialog box, under the remember password there is an option called Use a Master Password. Put a check mark on it and give a strong master password as a protection against phishing attacks. Even if you forget this password, there is no problem. But a hacker cannot get any of your passwords from firefox, unless he find your master password first. This is a phishing attack protection you can impliment right now in seconds.
In the internet explorer you must go to Tools/Options and do similar settings to your privacy tab and security tab. These steps are worth the effort to protect yourself from phishing attacks
Never shop online if the site is not secure or is not using at least 128 bit encryption or does not have a valid security certificate which your browser will warn you in any case. Remember that phishing attacks are done by people who have better knowledge and have been doing it for a long time. You do not stand a chance if the hacker is adamant on stealing your sensitive important data.

Phishing Attack & Internet Security

Today, there are many software available online to prevent hackers from phishing your private and important data. The best is Atherion Identity Protection Software. It is regarded as one of the best software in its class for its unique way of identity protection and phishing attack prevention. Atherion keeps all your usernames and passwords, in a safe vault that has 128 bit encryption. When you shop online you do not have to type in your credit card numbers or banking usernames passwords etc. Atherion creates a virtual encrypted tunnel from your Computer to the website you are purchasing an item and this tunnel is invisible to a hacker or spyware or a phishing attack tools. Atherion automatically enters these details from the vault with just a couple of mouse clicks. This means that the data remains encrypted all through and no chance of phishing attack happening. Atherion is designed to work on all Computer running any 32/64 bit Windows 7 XP Vista ME 2000.

As a last word I would like to remind you an old saying that goes as "Prevention is always better than Cure"

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