A friend of mine asked me why how his Yahoo Mail account got hacked. We had a long discussion and finally found the root of this problem is he has been tricked to visit a site by somebody he doesn’t know. The site asked him to enter his Yahoo Mail account user I.D and password to view a picture of a weird orchid. Nothing happen and later he found that his e-mail account has been hacked. (Password, user profile, all has been changed)
History of Phishing
Phishing is often done by scammers to lure people personal information such a bank and credit card account numbers. Using fake website, they will ask you to enter those information. Most of the famous Nigerian scams use this method to steal money from people. Email or pop-up message that claims to be from a business or organization that you may deal with will be send to you. In my friend case, the internet fraudsters hack the e-mail to get the information.
How not to get hooked by a ‘Phishing’ Scam
A simple tip is read the e-mail that you got several times and try to detect any grammatical error or misspelling on it. If there’s one mistake, the chance that you are being scammed is high. Always check your credit card and bank statements regularly to make sure no one is stealing from you or making purchase under your name. Once you suspected that you have being scammed, immediately report to your credit card company/bank.
Google has introduce a new way to detect phishing site which using the Google Toolbar. The Google Toolbar will automatically warn you over site that might be unsafe. You can get Google Toolbar here.
Where to report if you have been scammed?
You can file a complaint to Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) site. They have a great resource of phishing report sites.
Updated: Internet Explorer 7 has built-in function to detect phishing site. So upgrade your Internet Explorer browser now to enjoy the new feature. 