Phishing Scams

Phishing Origins
	The first documented use of the word "phishing" took place in 1996. Most people believe it originated as an alternative spelling of "fishing," as in "to fish for information"

Since most people won't reveal their bank account, credit card number or password to just anyone, phishers have to take extra steps to trick their victims into giving up this information. This kind of deceptive attempt to get information is called social engineering.

Phishers often use real company logos and copy legitimate e-mail messages, replacing the links with ones that direct the victim to a fraudulent page. They use spoofed, or fake, e-mail addresses in the "From:" and "Reply-to" fields of the message, and they obfuscate links to make them look legitimate. But recreating the appearance of an official message is just part of the process.  read more »

TechnologyHow Phishing Works

Suppose you check your e-mail one day and find a message from your bank. You've gotten e-mail from them before, but this one seems suspicious, especially since it threatens to close your account if you don't reply immediately. What do you do?

This message and others like it are examples of phishing, a method of online identity theft. In addition to stealing personal and financial data, phishers can infect computers with viruses and convince people to participate unwittingly in money laundering.

Most people associate phishing with e-mail messages that spoof, or mimic, banks, credit card companies or other business like Amazon and eBay. These messages look authentic and attempt to get victims to reveal their personal information. But e-mail messages are only one small piece of a phishing scam.
¬From beginning to end, the process involves:

Planning. Phishers decide which business to target and determine how to get e-mail addresses for the customers of that business. They often use the same mass-mailing and address collection techniques as spammers.  read more »

TipsEven if your children don’t have an account, they’ve certainly heard enough about it through word of mouth. The latest hangout for tweens and teens isn’t the mall in downtown or any particular club, but rather the chaotic world of cyberspace, at a website called MySpace.com. As the hottest social networking site on the web, MySpace has accumulated an estimated 54 million users in just three years of existence, with many users falling within the teen and twenty-something crowds and approximately 19% under the age of 17. MySpace is a wonderful place to meet others of like mind and interest, but with this sharing of interests come other dangers that are heightened by the unregulated nature of the Internet and the ready availability of personal information online.

Why MySpace?
Teens are constantly looking for places to hang out, away from parents and school. MySpace gives them just that – a place to socialize with others of similar interests and tastes. The biggest attraction in using MySpace is its ease of use and the number of friends one can meet online.
Setting up an account in MySpace is free and easy. The only requirements are that users must be at least 14 years of age. The information needed to start an account includes:
• Valid e-mail address
• First and last name  read more »