Don’t take the bait on e-mail offers from people ‘phishing’
Town workers spread salt, blow snow in Tabor City Wednesday. (Deuce Niven photo)
Town workers spread salt, blow snow in Tabor City Wednesday. (Deuce Niven photo)
Are you confused by what is in your e-mail? This week I received a half dozen e-mails forwarded to me by business associates asking the same question, “Is this legitimate or a scam?”
“Phishing” tricks people into giving out sensitive information by imitating legitimate sites like AOL, eBay, banks or credit card companies familiar to many consumers.
Consumer confusion about what is, or is not, fraudulent e-mail often results in legitimate e-mail from the Better Business Bureau dismissed as potential fraud by consumers who depend on BBB E-Alerts to warn of the latest scams in our marketplace.
Phishing schemes will continue to get more sophisticated and harder to detect so it’s time to test your Phishing IQ by taking the Online Phishing Quiz published by MailFrontier, an e-mail security company.
Log on to the Web site at: www.mailfrontier.com.
Scroll down and click on “Test Your Phishing IQ” and you will get a chance to analyze 10 actual e-mail messages and distinguish the legitimate from the fraudulent. This test lets you scroll through the messages, hover the mouse over links, and do almost anything but follow the links. When you’ve made your decisions, submit the test and find out how phishing savvy you are.
I took the test and plan to use the test as another educational tool for the BBB staff. The quiz is a great combination of technology and consumer education which is the key to keeping the phish at bay and making your e-mail safe again.
When you receive an e-mail that you think is a phish, the tips below provided by MailFrontier can keep you from taking the bait:
(1) Subject matters: Consider the subject line of an e-mail carefully. Citibank will never send you an e-mail headed “_Citibank_account_update ACT-NOW.” These messages may get through span filters because they appear to come from a reputable source, but that doesn’t mean it’s really from Citibank.
(2) Learn The Language: Understand how the companies you deal with want to interact with you. For example, banks usually want you to access your account through their Web sites, not an e-mail link. Phishing e-mails stand out because they don’t follow the rules.
(3) Browsing Around: Practice safe browsing. Open a new browser window each time you log on to a Web site that displays personal information. When you are done at that site, log out and close that browser window.
(4) Spelling Counts: Be sure to read e-mails that say they are from companies you know. Sometimes a real e-mail will have a spelling or grammatical error, but anything more than one error is suspicious.
(5) It’s personal: Expect good customer service. Unless your name is ‘eBay User” or johndoe99″ most phishing e-mails are not personalized. If you receive a “Dear Customer” e-mail, it may be time to move on.
(6) All form, no function: Never enter your personal or credit information into a form in an e-mail.
(7) Make a statement: Read your statements, every one, every month to ensure your charges and debits are correct. Often information obtained through phishing is not used right away. Stay vigilant and report any suspicious activity immediately.
(8) Stay current: Use and maintain your e-mail protection software for spam blocking, fraud blocking and anti-virus.