Credit Cards and Online Banking Safety Tips – Knowing How Phising Scam Works
Nowadays, people use credit cards and online banking on the Internet everyday to make their life easier. However, there are various drawbacks that come with this new technology. One of the specific drawbacks comes in form of phishing. Phishing is done when a person uses a fake email or fake online shopping websites in order to gain information about you, your bank account, or your credit card. This has become extremely common and something to be extra careful and mindful about.
Phishing scam is extremely easy and has become a very popular form of theft amongst thieves. Basically, there are two phising methods that works as follows:
- Phising with email
It is started by an email that is phrased very cleverly and it appears that is has arrived directly from your bank or credit card company. This email generally asks that you provided various information that is typically confidential in order to “verify” yourself and the information that is held. Additionally, this email could come with a threat of account closure unless you provide the information that is necessary according to the content within the email. This email provides a link that will lead you to a fake website where you can fill in your account or username or card number and password.
- Phising with fake website
Another extremely popular phishing method is that the thief will create a website that is fake and useless, accept that it will accept payments made via credit cards. This is the only purpose the website will hold, is to essentially take your money. You will likely never receive the products that were advertised and if you were to accept either form of phishing you could unfortunately have the result of high credit card bills or a bank account that has been depleted of funds.
It is important that you learn and begin to protect yourself from this phishing instance. You should only reveal information after you have verified the accuracy of the email. Generally, the only thing you will have to do is make a phone call to the bank or credit card company and gain confirmation that the email is in fact true.
Also you should take a close look at the email, this will help you understand if it is in fact valid. You can determine that email is scam by checking the followings:
- Salutation or attention line of the email. Typically phishing emails begin with a Dear Customer or Dear Sir/Madam, the company if truly contacting you, would use your full name.
- The company or bank name, whether it is spelled correctly, often times a phisher will incorrectly spell the company name.
- Link which you are requested to click. This link is usually in a form of hyperlink text and looks like leading to the bank official website, but if you notice it further with your mouse, it shows an IP address or odd long web address.
- If the request comes in the form of an image, this should be an important clue that they have something to hide from scanners that are anti-phishing.
When you are ready to pay your online shopping with credit cards, you have to make sure the website has a trusted and recognized payment processor before filling any credit card information. If you are not sure about the security of your credit card, you can always check the credibility of the company/website you deal with on the search engine. For instance, type on Google these words: company name + scam or website name + fraud. Check whether anyone ever reported any scams from this website.
By reading this article, I hope you are aware of every phising email come to your email box now and you can do banking and credit card transaction safely.
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[...] Don’t give any response to emails asking you to provide your credit card information and emails that ask you to go to a website and verify your personal and credit card information as these are known as “phishing” scams. Click here to read more about how the phising scam works. [...]