Complete Systems Design Information Technology Solutions

October 4, 2008

Phishing scams target common services to trick you into giving out your credit card info and security information.

You’ve probably received phishing e-mails such as your eBay account has changed, your Wells Fargo account needs to be updated or please log in to verify your visa credit card info even if you don’t have accounts with these companies. Phishing e-mails want you to give them your credit card info, bank info, logon info or security information so they can either access your financials or steal your identity.

Frequently you can spot scams by checking the source of the e-mail. You can right click on the e-mail address and see that the request for your visa information came from a bad domain such as This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it - a real e-mail would come from someone at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  the domain of the company has to be next to the .com most major companies have a .com address so if it comes from This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it   it probably is not legitimate either.

The e-mails of the phishing sources also have links to access your account. The link may look legitimate but when you click on it, the link brings you to a different place. If you click on the following link: http://www.google.com  – you think it will bring you to one site but it actually brings you to another. I sent you to a legitimate website but it isn’t the site the link appears go to. That is their goal with phishing, they bait you with a link to go to a site you think is for one thing but it brings you to another item that may appear to be the real bank’s website or credit card site, you login and they record your username and password and then can use it on the real bank’s website to access your identity and/or money. So instead of clicking on www.visa.com and going to Visa’s website, it might bring you to www.visa.fakedomain.com and they hope you don’t notice it isn’t the real website. An easy way to avoid phishing scams is if you think the e-mail is legitimate but want to make sure, just type the URL of your company’s website – don’t use the link in the e-mail or call the company to verify if you need to do something using the contact information on your bank statement.

Read the Full Article  - CNET