Beware of Phishing Emails

Phishing is a term to describe emails that are made to look authentic so the recipient will think that the emails are real - except that the emails are fraud. The purpose of these emails is to get personal information from the recipient. Usually, the phishing emails ask the recipient to update their bank account information or else their bank account will be terminated or suspended. If the recipient believes the email then the recipient is in grave danger as he or she is bound to enter the personal information and submit them to the identity theft suspects. The information they will ask includes your name, address, phone number, date of birth, Social Security Number, bank account or credit card number.

So, how do you protect yourself from phishing emails? First of all, never give out any of your personal information, or fill out any forms in an email. Always check with the real company, for example your bank, to make sure that the email is real or not, before you do as the email instructed. Usually, if you are using online bank services, the URL should appear as ‘https’ rather than the normal ‘http’ to indicate that it is a secure connection. Most identity theft suspects set up a duplicate website of the authentic site, such as PayPal, AOL, Best Buy and eBay to steal the users identity. Report these emails to the real site support team should you come across such emails, to help them bust the culprit.