If someone walked up to you on the street and asked for your bank details, you wouldn’t dream of giving them away, would you? However, “phishing” emails look so professional and convincing, that it is easy to enter details without thinking.
Phishing is defined as “the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication”.
So, when you receive an email from your bank saying that you need to log in to verify a few pieces of information, it may well seem entirely plausible. The email contains the bank’s logos and details, and is well-written and professional. You are required to click on a link which takes you to a login screen. This screen also looks authentic, with the bank logo and so on, and you enter the required details.
It’s not like the old “stranger from Africa asking you to give them your bank details” trick; it really feels familiar and believable. But it’s worth knowing what to look out for, so that you’re not caught out by these sophisticated thieves.
How to spot a “phishing” email:
- Read emails carefully – be suspicious of poorly written ones with bad grammar and spelling.
- Do not click on any links – if you want to log into any online account you hold, type the address into the browser yourself.
- Your bank probably provides details of the sort of thing they will or won’t ask by email, so check this before believing that an email appearing to be from them is genuine.
- If you are directed to a site, and you’re not sure whether it really is owned by the company you think you’re dealing with, you can view the details of the SSL owner.
- Consider whether the web browser you use has anti-phishing features. Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 or later, Mozilla Firefox 2 or later and Opera 9.1 or later do, for a start.
- “If in doubt, don’t” give any personal details; contact your bank (or whoever it is) directly to check.
For more information on this, or any other computer security issue, call us at the datamills office on 0114 287 0510.