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Have You Got A Phishing Email - Some Practical Suggestions And Measures To Be Protected
If you use e-mail at all you no doubt have received a phishing email or 2 or more. Most times you'll receive more. I know I receive several every week even with filters on my e-mail accounts. So what do you do with them? If you have received a phishing e-mail, also referred to as a spoofing e-mail, by someone attempting to obtain your personal info illegally, follow these steps for ways to report the phishing email: A. Don't respond to the email. Instead, forward it to the organization involved. Such as, if you get a phishing e-mail from someone claiming to be from eBay, you must forward the e-mail to eBay's security department. The e-mail address to use is spoof@ebay.com per the eBay site info listed at http://pages.ebay.com/help/account/questions/e-mail-from-ebay.html B. Do not click on any links in the e-mail. If you desire to visit the site where the e-mail apparently originated, type that website's address directly into your browser. If you've a relationship with them and they do require some information from you, a request for that info should be accessible in your account. C. Don't call any phone numbers listed in the e-mail. These may be just another attempt to obtain your personal information. Look up the appropriate telephone numbers on the company's site. D. If at any time while you're viewing the email, a pop-up box appears asking you to enter personal information, ignore it. E. Forward the phishing email to the Anti-Phishing Working Group at reportphishing@antiphishing.org. Follow the instructions here: http://www.antiphishing.org/report_phishing.html. F. Before entering personal information on any site, verify that it has a security certificate. Look for a closed lock icon on your Web browser. This implies any info you enter will be encrypted before being sent. In fact I have failed to make purchases I wanted on websites which don't have this security on their ordering pages. It's definitely anything you should find and can also be identified by the addition of an 's' to the starting of the url. Rather than http://www.somesite.com, it would be https://www.somesite.com. G. Install phishing filters onto your PC and keep them updated frequently. The filters will protect you from entering personal info if you visit a site known for phishing and will warn you when you visit websites which look suspicious. If you are already the sufferer of identity theft, the first thing you should do is to change all of your online passwords and check the history of all your online accounts to see if there is any fraudulent activity. After securing your passwords, you must contact the organizations and, if required, arrange for new accounts and credit cards. Furthermore you should file an identity theft complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at their FTC Complaint Assistant site. However, be aware that the "FTC doesn't resolve individual consumer complaints" but your complaint may result in prosecution of the individuals who sent out that phishing email.
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