Gone Phishinâ?
Gone Phishin’?
Phishing vs. Pharming
- Phishing consists of emails and links to Web sites that are designed to steal your money.
- Phishers are also using SMS (texting) to gain access to your confidential information, often posing as financial institutions.
- Pharming redirects the URL you type in to a fake/scam Web site that often looks similar or identical to a real Web site.
- Phishing tricks you into clicking on a link to a scam, while Pharming automatically redirects you to a scam Web site.
Ways to protect your information
- Be careful reading your emails. Phishing emails usually have spelling errors, threats of closing your account, and often use popular company names to make them seem legitimate.
- Be aware that scammers tend to take advantage of time periods such as holidays and global events.
- By hovering your cursor over a suspicious link, you can determine whether the link address matches the one that was typed in the email.
- Make sure Web site addresses spell out the company-s name correctly.
- Scam Web sites may ask you for more personal information than is customary on the original, legitimate Web site.
- Always make sure the Web site is authentic by confirming -https:- at the beginning of the address, a locked padlock icon, or an unbroken key icon.
- Keep your antivirus, antispyware and firewall software up to date.
Unsolicited e-mail offers or spam can be forwarded to the Federal Trade Commission at spam@uce.gov