One of the most dangerous cyber crimes is email phishing. Phishing is an identity theft that occurs in the web. In this scam, a person is being lured to divulge some personal information by scammers who take the identities of reliable people and legitimate organizations. One of the factors that make phishing very dangerous is that the websites, email addresses, and the information that scammers provide look almost authentic. Another reason phishing is dangerous is that your anti-virus and firewall cannot detect phishing emails. Your anti-spam cannot also prevent these emails from entering your computer system because phishing emails do really appear legitimate.
The phishing bait
Initially, a target victim receives an email. The email claims to come from legitimate offices, such as academic institutions and financial institutions. If the email looks authentic and if the address seems credible, the unsuspecting victim easily falls for the bait that scammers set. The victim would then give away important information such as bank account numbers, email passwords, and credit card numbers.
Don’t be the next victim
Keeping a skeptical eye on every email that you receive is one of the basic things that you can do to avoid being the next phishing scam victim. If you receive an email from seemingly authentic institutions that ask you for some information, you have to go directly to the institution’s official website and make inquiries. Security experts also recommend that you read the email as plain text. When you have identified a phishing scam, you can report it to the Federal Trade Commission or to the insitution which the phishing mail spoofed.