Phishing Protection
There's a new type of Internet piracy called "phishing."
It's pronounced "fishing," and that's exactly what these thieves are doing:
"fishing" for your personal financial information. What they want are account
numbers, passwords, Social Security Numbers, and other confidential information
that they can use to compromise your checking account or run up bills on
your credit cards.
In the worst case, you could find yourself a victim of identity theft.
With the sensitive information obtained from a successful phising scam,
these thieves can take out loans or obtain credit cards and even
driver's licenses in your name. They can do damage to your financial
history and personal reputation that can take years to unravel. But
if you understand how phishing works and how to protect yourself, you can
help stop it before it starts.
Here's How Phishing Works:
In a typical case, you'll receive an e-mail that appears to come
from a reputable company that you recognize and do business with,
such as your financial institution. In some cases, the e-mail may
appear to come from a government agency, including one of the
federal financial institution regulatory agencies.
The e-mail will probably warn you of a serious problem that
requires your immediate attention. It may use phrases, such
as, "Immediate attention required," or "Please contact us
immediately about your account." The e-mail will then
encourage you to click on a link or button to go to the
institution's web site.
In a phishing scam, you could be redirected to a phony
web site that may look exactly like the real thing.
Sometimes, in fact, it may be the company's actual web
site. In those cases, a pop-up window will quickly appear
for the purpose of harvesting your financial information.
In either case, you may be asked to update your account
information or to provide information for verification purposes:
your Social Security Number, your account number, your password,
or the information you use to verify your identity when speaking
to a real financial institution, such as your mother's maiden
name or your place of birth.
If you provide the requested information, you may find
yourself the victim of identity theft.
How to Protect Yourself:
Never provide your personal information in response to an
unsolicited request, whether it is over the phone or over
the Internet. E-mails and Internet pages created by phishers
may look exactly like the real thing. They may even have a fake
padlock icon that ordinarily is used to denote a secure site.
If you did not initiate the communication, you should not provide
any information.
If you believe that contact may be legitimate, contact the financial
institution yourself. You can find phone numbers and web sites
on the monthly statements you receive from your financial institution,
or you can lookup the institution up in a phone book or on the Internet.
The key is that you should be the one to initiate the contact,
using contact information that you have verified yourself.
Never provide your password over the phone or in response
to an unsolicited Internet request. A financial institution
would never ask you to verify your account information online.
Thieves armed with this information and your account number can
help themselves to your savings and much more.
Review account statements regularly to ensure all charges
are correct. If your account statement is late in
arriving, call your financial institution to find out why.
If your financial institution offers electronic account
access, periodically review account activity online to
catch any suspicious activity.
