Nowadays, phishing has been one of the major causes of information theft and financial losses. Supposed private and confidential data become robbed and used for personal gains of phishers.
Since we are in the modern age and we are all exposed to online transactions requiring provision of information, either for identification or purchase through credit cards and other banking facilities, we are also exposed to being robbed of our personal identities. If we are unaware of major and pertinent red flags surrounding a particular web site, e-mail or internet address, then, we are more likely to be victims of this cybercrime.
Various tips and warnings are provided in the internet and given by various organizations for us to identify a phishing scam and protect ourselves, and educate also other people on ways to improve the safety of their information.
Discussions include how scammers deceive the public, their tools and means, as well as determining legitimate websites and comparing them with the malicious ones.
We have to note that out of nowhere, a scammer will contact his target through emails, phone calls and text messages and will pretend to be a representative of some reliable organizations – such as banks, financial institutions, service providers, etc. which the target has an interest or prior transaction with. Usually, this scammer will request the target to confirm or provide personal details in the form of a survey with offered prizes, or a verification of records due to various reasons, including the entity’s loss of data, or migration to a new system that will need customer inputs. These scammers may even alert the target to be careful in sharing confidential information to unauthorized persons. Sometimes, a warning or report may be sent to the target informing him that an unauthorized access to his account was made and thus needs to verify his identity by entering a web link which directs the user to input his username, password, credit card details and other data. Many targets fall prey to this scam because they have been informed of an alleged suspicious activity that was entered into in their name.
Note that these phishing messages were properly planned and designed to look real and legitimate, which makes it easier for scammers to deceive their victims. Official websites of popular businesses were copied and recreated and if targets are unaware of distinguishing between genuine and malicious websites, they will more likely incur losses once they entertain the scamming activities of phishers. In addition, when it happened that a person was victimized by this phishing scam, he/she will experience some changes in his device – such as newly installed unidentified programs and additional icons on the screen. The computer may also experience lags and slower processes.
To prevent being victimized by phishing scams, one should make a proper inspection of the sites they enter and the messages that they receive. Often, phishing messages will not address you by your name and contain typographical and grammatical errors. The recipient of this suspicious message should refrain from clicking URLs and links provided in the message as this will direct them to the malicious website and may even instantly capture your log-in information.
If a certain website requires installation of an unknown software or download of a file with a different type or extension (i.e. “.exe”), do not click on any link that will prompt such action. It can also be helpful to educate oneself by making a personal research that will identify if the message received or the website entered is actually malicious. It must be noted that legitimate web addresses contain a security symbol in the URL, designated with the ‘s’ in the “https”, rather than simply “http” making the site safer for browsing. This can also be symbolized by a closed padlock to indicate site security.
These are only some of the tips that will help all of us become more aware and skeptic about the emails and other communications that we receive. Cyber criminals are always doing their best to get the most out of our information and resources, so we, the public must also do our best to secure our properties and help inform other people. And since we are able to understand all of these, let us apply this in our future dealings and transactions.
By: Diane Mari Ilaya Wagan | Teacher II | Bataan National High School | Balanga, Bataan
