Fishing for Fortunes. Scam!

Spelt phishing, but pronounced as above, thisunreliable. The “s” is an indication of a secure
despicable act is an effort to batter your bankrollpage, but are you at the right domain?
or commandeer your cash.Place your mouse over the link and the domain
To put it simply, you can get emails from accountattached to such a link, should show itself. Viewing
administrators, which strongly urge you to updatethe source code is another way but some
details attached to that account.knowledge of it is necessary.
The issue, though, is the pretence of such mail.Another ploy, sometimes deliberate and
You may not even have such an account assometimes “convenient”, is inserting a
referenced.reference to the “legitimate company”
It doesn’t come from the accountanywhere after the domain name. Ex. Unwary
provider.victims may overlook the fact that “ebay” is
It can use false S.S.L. references, to present annot the domain, but see it anyway as a directory
illusion of trust and security.or file name. Anyone, anywhere can have a file or
It can prompt for immediate action on your part,directory named like that of a company.
alleging false log-in’s by persons unknown,To make matters somewhat worse from an
and from countries unknown. If action is not“easy to identify” viewpoint, the source
taken, they can impress on you, that the accountcode of the link can be represented as an I.P.
will be suspended or closed. Indeed, anything likelyaddress rather than its named counterpart. There
to work can be fabricated, to get you to theare some tools that you can use at which you
webpage suggested in the link or hyperlink. Notecan use to type in the I.P. address and cross
the word “suggested”.reference it with the official account domain
Likenesses to company logos are used topresented in the e-mail, or web page for that
re-enforce “credibility”.matter. Opening a second window for
In fact, these phishing attempts actually lookinvestigative purposes and re-sizing both to be
pretty good or realistic. So much so that anyside by side can be revealing, and comparisons be
qualms of guilt or stupidity, experienced by amade between the alleged source and that of the
“conned party” are groundless.source code. can be put in one window and can
Experience, specific education or forewarning, is allbe put in the other. NOTE; you should be checking
that prevents this type of charade from wideningdomains and ignoring everything that comes after
its base of “victims”.the forward slash at the end of the domain.
The goal is to get you to type in your details,A similar test can be done for email viruses,
complete with credit card number and the restwhere suspicious email addresses can be searched
can be guessed.for some degree of authenticity.
Some damage is also absorbed by theIf you are phished, try to learn as much as
organisation or company being misrepresentedpossible about it as phishing attempts and email
and they can do little about it but warn theirviruses have some aspects in common.
customers what to watch out for, and issueIncorrect spelling is one of them. You must
security instructions. Indeed, it is from accounts atunderstand that the authors can be from
reputable companies that most passing trade learnanywhere and not necessarily have degrees in
the correct or most secure procedures. It isEnglish. Legitimate companies can also be from
therefore important to read any material thatanywhere, with different primary languages, but
they offer.do perfect their spellings and general grammar.
Generally though, reputable companies with a mindAttention to upper and lower case can be another
to preserve their integrity will tell you to log-in atgiveaway. This is especially true where particular
their main page and proceed from there. Notportions of the text are the design of the author,
through a link specific to your account!and not just copied and pasted. Typically, these
Hyperlinks can mask the true domain thatportions are customised to be customer specific
you’ll be brought to, with the text linked toin a general sense, and fonts may even be
(example, only), a replica or fake page. Only goingdifferent or out of place. Such “special”
to secure pages where one believes thatadditions are to strengthen the sense of urgency
“https” will do it, will always help but whollyand call to action.