Steve Smith, host of your TQA Weekly, explains what a phishing scam is, the methods used, and how to avoid being the victim of a phishing scam.
Episode #2-45 released on August 5, 2012
Phishing scams are now common place, in fact, everyday we get spammed by dozens, maybe hundreds of phishing scams. There are ways of protecting oneself from these kinds of scams, and this is my intention today.
In order to protect oneself from such a scam, we need to know what exactly is a phishing scam. A phishing scam is an attempt to invoke a trust between you and a fraudulent party, in order to convince you to reveal information like usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, send money, reveal personal information, etc....
These phishing scams are popular and usually sent by e-mail, or by social networking, but other types of tactics which may include calling you directly.
You will normally see these kinds of e-mails or communications pretending to be a company, or bank, that you may or may not have any direct connection to. One example is a supposed e-mail coming from a trusted bank stating that they need you to verify a supposed transaction by pressing a link, and logging in to confirm or deny the authenticity of such a transaction.
Another type of phishing scam may, also, include a supposed death of a family member, in another geographic location, and someone you haven't met, but apparently you're related. They ask for information from your part in order to release frozen funds, and some ask for cash to release frozen funds.
These are scams. They will attempt to lure you to divulge information, in order, to give you something, or verify something. Don't enter the game, don't click the links, don't reply, never login into any web-sites that come from links in e-mails. In the case of phishing scams related to banks, and companies, communicate with those banks and companies directly using phone numbers that are available in your bills, or in the phone book. At worst, notify the appropriate security departments, or police, which may ask you to forward the concerning phishing e-mails to a special e-mail address.
The best advice I can give you is to never open e-mails from people you don't know. Don't open e-mails from the junk mail folder, unless you specifically asked for something that was misclassified. Do not login into strange web-sites. Do not provide any credit card numbers, passwords, usernames, personal information to anyone. Presume anyone or any company calling from a blocked number is attempting to commit such a phishing scam. Presume anyone you haven't met in person attempting to friend you in social network is a potential phishing threat, and block or limit access to any and all information you are not willing to have the public to have, and never reveal private and unique identifying information to anyone.
Next week, I'll be answering two questions from buckwheatclark of Youtube asking what are the differences between computer monitor and television, and explain which is better for gaming, one big screen or two smaller screens.
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Host : Steve Smith | Music : Jonny Lee Hart | Editor : Steve Smith | Producer : Zed Axis Productions