Credit Card Scams - How to Prevent Becoming a Victim of Phishing

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Today most people use credit cards routinely even thoughcredit card scams are increasing.
Phishing is one of thecredit card scams that is rapidly increasing, so it iscritical to understand how it works and prevent becoming avictim. A phishing scam is the process of attempting to getsensitive information such as credit card details,usernames, passwords and social security numbers bypretending to be a trustworthy organisation.
Phishing e-mail messages can take a number of forms. Theymight appear to come from your online bank or financialinstitution, auction sites such as eBay, online paymentprocessors such as PayPal, a company you regularly dobusiness with, or from your social networking site such asYouTube, Facebook or MySpace.
Phishing scams are usually carried out by email or instantmessaging, and direct you to a fake website where you enterpersonal details. The fake website will look similar oridentical to the legitimate website.
In order to trick you into revealing your personal details,the message might include phrases like "confirm billinginformation" or "verify your account" or "update your creditcard information" or "If you don't respond within 48 hoursyour account will be closed". These are examples of messages you may receive: "We suspectan unauthorized transaction on your account.
To ensure thatyour account is not compromised, please click the linkbelow and confirm your identity." "During our regularverification of accounts, we couldn't verify yourinformation. Please click here to update and verify yourinformation." The messages convey a sense of urgency sothat you will respond immediately without thinking.
The message might even claim that your quick response isrequired because your account has been compromised. Themessages direct you to a website that looks just like alegitimate organization's site, however it's a fake sitewhose sole purpose is to trick you into giving yourpersonal information so the operators can steal youridentity and run up bills or commit crimes in your name.
Social networking sites are now a prime target of phishing,since the personal details in such sites can be used inidentity theft. Experiments show a success rate of over 70%for phishing attacks on social networks.
A phishing scam that is very targeted is called spearphishing. Some recent phishing attacks have been directedspecifically at senior executives within businesses, andthe term whaling has been coined for these kinds ofattacks.
This type of credit card scam may result in denial ofaccess to email, loss of credit, lost access to accounts,or severe financial loss. If phishers can gain access to username and passwords, theycan lock you out of your accounts, and drain accounts ofany money and also run up debt.
If phishers can obtain yourname, date of birth and an address [some of which can beobtained from public records] they can open bank accounts,business accounts and credit cards with which to commitfraud. In 2007 phishing attacks in the United States involved 3.6million adults who lost US $ 3.2 billion in the 12 monthsending in August 2007.
How to Avoid a Phishing Scam. Be suspicious of any emails with urgent requests forpersonal or financial information, especially if they haveexciting or upsetting information designed to get you torespond urgently.
Don't reply to email or pop-up messages that ask forpersonal or financial information, and don't lick on linksin the message. Don't cut and paste a link from the messageinto your Web browser because phishers can make links looklike they go one place, but that actually send you to adifferent site.
Always ensure that you are using a secure website whensubmitting credit card or other sensitive information viayour web browser. Phishers are now able to forge both the https:// that younormally see when you are on a secure Web server and also alegitimate looking address.
Make sure you enter the addressof any banking, shopping, or financial transaction websiteyourself and don't use displayed links. Phishers can also forge the yellow lock you would normallysee near the bottom of your screen on a secure site.
Thelock used to be an indicator of a 'safe' site. When thelock is double-clicked, it displays the securitycertificate for the site.
If you get any warnings that theaddress of the site you have displayed does not match thecertificate, don't proceed. Some phishers send an email that appears to be from alegitimate business and ask you to call a phone number toupdate your account or access a "refund." Because they use Voice over Internet Protocol technology,the area code you call does not reflect where the phishersreally are.
If you need to reach an organization you dobusiness with, call the number on your financial statementsor on the back of your credit card. Use anti-virus and anti-spyware software, as well as afirewall, and update them all regularly.
Review credit card and bank account statements as soon asyou receive them so you can check for unauthorized charges. The main thing phishing e-mail messages have in common isthat they ask for personal data, or direct you to Web sitesor phone numbers to call where they ask you to providepersonal data.
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