Pulling at the Heart Strings: Phishing Gets Emotional
A week before Christmas of 2013, hackers stole financial information from 40 million Target customers. As soon as the retail giant discovered the security breach, Target sent its customers an email explaining the situation. Within twenty-four hours, according to MarketWatch, phishers jumped into the madness with a phishing email. Designed to look exactly like the concerned email Target had already sent out, the phishing email attempted to lure customers to sites where their details could be compromised again.
A Note from Someone You Trust
One way to explain phishing is that it is something that occurs when thieves pretend to be an entity that you know and trust in order to get your information. This ruse is effective because consumers are more likely to open an email from their bank or their cell phone company than they would be to open an email from the recently dethroned king of a country they’ve never heard of. A few years ago, in fact, pretending to be a dethroned king was all the rage for phishers, but now, these internet bandits have taken a new angle, and the phishing for already vulnerable Target customers is just one example of the new angle that phishing has taken.
Exploiting Your Concerns
Preying on consumers who are already feeling worried or concerned is one of the most popular themes in the phishing world right now. Phishers know that when they send you an email that is close to your heart, you will be more likely to open it. In the past, this guise often took the form of a stranded relative begging for help.
Written in stilted English, the phishing email would beseech you to send cash so that Aunt Ginny can get back her luggage, wallet, and passport. Although these types of emails still circulate, they are quickly being replaced by phishing scams that prey on other concerns, like your stolen Target card. Many phishing emails even attempt to exploit consumer concern for natural disasters.
Phishers pretending to represent charities ask concerned consumers to donate money to the relief efforts for the typhoon in the Philippines or to help residents affected by Hurricane Sandy, reports Online Threat Alerts. However, instead of sending your hard earned money to any real relief organizations, the phishers just steal the cash that you donate or steal your financial details.
Protect Yourself: Check the Address
Before clicking on anything in an email, even if you think it’s from a trusted organization, Apple Support reminds you to check out the URL. If you roll your mouse over the link in the email, you should see the destination address. If this doesn’t match the link or looks suspicious, don’t click on it. If the address looks similar but not quite the same as one you trust, it could be dangerous as well.
For instance, if you get an email from your credit card company, and their web address is creditcard.com, don’t click on a URL that says creditcard.maliciousintent.com. If you do click on a malicious link, you will typically reach a site that looks very similar to your bank website, a charity website, or you cell phone provider’s website. This site will prompt you for your username and password, and it may even ask you for a PIN. If you ever get to a website that is asking you for more information than normal, stop, and call the organization before entering any information. Most companies have a fraud department that you can alert when this happens.
Effects of Phishing
Once the thieves have phished out the right information, they can manipulate your accounts, make international calls on your phones, or drain your bank accounts. Money lost to phishing scams accounts for only a fraction of all the money lost to identity theft last year, a number that the Bureau of Justice estimates to be close to $24.7 billion. However, phishing scams are some of the easiest to avoid if you simply know what to look for.
Article By : Jack Tomlinson
Jack is a financial activist who rails against the many abuses of big banks and others who have manipulated the financial markets.