What Is Phishing And How To Prevent It?

So just what is phishing? It is a criminal activity carried out on computers where a phisher will attempt to obtain sensitive information fraudulently. They will try to get hold of a person’s user name, their passwords and credit card details by pretending to be a person or business which the potential victim considers to be trustworthy. The phisher will usually attempt to get the information through sending their victim an electronic communication.

The most common way that phishers will attempt to try to gain this information is by sending an email or instant message and then will direct those who have received the communication to provide their details at a certain website. Normally companies such as eBay and PayPal are often the companies which will be targeted but online banks have also been as well.

Unfortunately once a phisher has been able to obtain the information that they are have asked for they can then use it for criminal purposes. The normal kind of criminal activities they will use this information for is as identity theft. They are able to take out more credit cards and loans against a person’s name and then not pay anything back. It may also be used to commit a fraudulent act or a larcenous act as well.

In recent years there has been a steady increase in the amount of phishing attacks that are occurring to people around the globe. This is not only costing people a lot of time but also a lot of money as well. Certainly in 2002 it was estimated that people around the world lost more than $37 million to phishing scams and attacks.

However, today more and more ways are trying to be found to deal with the number of reports of phishing incidents which are now taking place around the globe. This is being achieved through the use of various legislations and laws along with training people how to detect and deal with such items. Also new technology is being devised which can then help to prevent a person from being phished in the future. But because it is quite difficult to understand what a person’s intentions are when it comes to using the internet, actually producing a system which is automated and will help to prevent a phishing attack is causing some problems for those developers who are trying to devise such a system.

Certainly when it comes to what is phishing and devising a way of preventing it, it may take many more years of research to find a suitable solution. Until then it is up to the user to look carefully at any unsolicited emails that they receive and wherever possible to delete them from their system. If you do find yourself receiving emails from say eBay or PayPal and for which you do not have accounts then immediately delete them from your system and contact the companies in question of what has arisen.

What Is Phishing? is a post from: Anti Phishing Scams