Phishing:
Don't get hooked on Phishing scams!
'It is a calm morning on the lake, the bait is
fresh and the water is full of fish for the taking!'
How often do you get email from Microsoft?
How about the maker of your car?
Seen any emails from the people who made your refrigerator
lately?
How about your Bedroom Suite? Your Television? Your telephone?
Stereo
System?
In other words - Microsoft, PayPal, Citi Bank, Sun Trust (to
name a few)...are like the rest - they don't send you email
-
they don't know you.
In today's typical phishing attack, a user receives an email
message purporting to be from a trusted source, such as his/her
bank, credit card company, or other financial service provider.
The
message, complete with official logos and phone numbers, usually
sports a spoofed, or faked, return address that adds to the deception.
The message includes a link which directs the user to a bogus
Web site -- unfortunately, one that can look identical to the
real thing -- where he/she is asked to enter account information
and passwords to retain their account or online access.
One of the main techniques phishing scammers use to lull users
into a false sense of security is to put links in an email that
look like they point to a legit company site when they actually
point to a phishing site. This is called link masking, and
it's easy to spot and avoid if you know what to look for.
Most
email apps let users hover a mouse pointer over a link to see
a pop-up window displaying the actual link. for example, a scammer
might send an email that has a "http://www.paypal.com" link,
but when you place the pointer over the link, the pop-up window
reads "http://www.paypal.phishingpasswords.com."
Eudora v6.2 from Qualcomm -
Adding to the top-rated SpamWatch junk mail quarantine introduced
with
Eudora 6.0, Eudora 6.2 now
also offers ScamWatch, a new feature that combats 'phishing'
schemes that use deceptive URLs in email to gather personal information.
SpoofStick Core
Street has taken the guesswork out of deciphering Web addresses
by using a utility toolbar that states what site you are actually
viewing.
Netcraft released a free toolbar for Internet Explorer that
shows several attributes of a site, including its location and
longevity, that can help users avoid phony Web sites.
| 
