Cyber criminals are again on their way to find their next victims through phishing scams. This time, they are using the government’s economic stimulus plan to lure their victims. Recently, there are circulating emails promising people economic-stimulus package payments. But of course, this is just a bait. The scammers want to phish for important information from people, probably to commit more crimes. The scammers provide a link to a certain website that requires one’s personal information.
Actions against phishing
Alerted with this new scam, the US-CERT encourages people to report once they have received this phishing email. The US-CERT also provides instructions on how to put a stop to the spreading of this cyber crime. Number one on the list of US-CERT instruction is to avoid following the web links from unsolicited emails. Another is to learn how to identify phishing emails. The US-CERT provides detailed information on how to recognize and avoid phishing scams. The agency also gives guidelines on how to report cyber crimes.
Why people take the phishing bait
Phishing email is said to be one of the rampant and one of the most dangerous scams. Although Internet users are well aware that phishing scams are not at all uncommon online, there are still quite a large number of people who fall for phishing scams. One reason is that it is easy for scammers to harvest the email addresses of their victims. The scammers are also adept in making believably authentic websites. Aside from these, the economic crisis today makes various people vulnerable to the phishing bait that scammers set.