Email Phishing. What is it?

Phishing, pronounced just like the word ‘fishing’ is the act of sending an email to a user falsely claiming to be an established company in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft.

The email directs the user to visit a website that looks identical to the legitimate website, where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords, credit cards, social security and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has. The website, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user’s information. Once this information is recorded, the ‘phisher’ then uses this information to steal or manipulate the unsuspecting users accounts, sometimes causing major long-time financial damages.

According to online research and compiled data, the two most common companies that are targeted are Paypal.com and Ebay.com. 

2007 Jer