Phishing scams are situations created by identity thieves where they pretend to already know some information about you in order to gain access to your personal information. For example, you might receive an email or instant message that appears to be from your bank or lender. This individual will ask you to confirm your bank account number or other sensitive information - sometimes threatening negative consequences if you don't do so immediately. Even though refusing to give out this information is your best defense, millions of people get fooled every year by these scams.
Keep Your Email and Instant Message Addresses Private
The best way to keep yourself from being tempted to respond to a phishing scam is to prevent them from landing in your email box in the first place. You may find it useful to have a separate email address for financial institutions, one for trusted friends and family, and one for general or public use. Many email providers will allow you to redirect emails from each of these different addresses to one account to minimize the inconvenience of checking each account. Do everything possible to keep the address you use for financial transactions as private as possible.
Immediately Report Suspected Phishing Contacts
If you do receive a message you suspect to be a phishing scam, call the customer service phone number right away to confirm whether you've received an actual message or not. In addition, almost every bank and credit card lender has a website where you can report suspicious emails and instant messages. Typically, they will ask you to fill out a simple form that will give them enough information to trace the origin of the perpetrator.
Limit Your Dialogue
As you might expect, there are many people that have had their identity stolen that are very angry about it. Some of these people have formed watch groups and offer a wide variety of support services - some good and some bad. They might also encourage you to communicate with the perpetrator and attempt to play mind games with him or her. However, some phishing perpetrators are violent criminals - the best thing you can do is simply report their activities and move on with your life.
Getting involved with phishers can be more trouble than it's worth. In some cases, you may receive repeated emails from them. In many cases, almost all of these messages are automated - so attempting to play mind games only leads to more frustration on your part. Just keep reporting them to your bank and the FBI, if necessary. While you may be tempted to send along a nasty letter to the perpetrator, it is better to simply set up a spam blocker and try to ignore them.
For the most part, phishing will not interfere with your life if you do not allow yourself to fall for it. Unfortunately, when you are threatened with the loss of access to a bank account, it may be very easy to justify giving up sensitive information. In every case of phishing, one simple phone call to the bank or lender would have made the situation very clear to the victim and prevented the crime entirely. The best thing you can do is report anything you suspect as phishing and let the bank and the authorities manage it from there.
Sarah Russell is an expert on preventing identity theft - because she herself has been a victim! To learn more about the products she recommends for protecting yourself and your home computer, please visit http://www.ComputerSafetyPro.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sarah_Russell
http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Prevent-Phishing-Scams&id=1147318
Print this page
