Is Your Identity being Phished For? Be the One that Got Away

May 26, 2009 – 11:06 am

phisher Phishing has recently become a very popular sport on the internet. Although unlike regular anglers who spend their time trying to catch the next big fish, these finaglers are phishing for your credit card, identity information and other personal information. And they’re getting scary good at it.

Every day these people go phishing for you behind the safety and anonymity of their computers. They take advantage of social media site’s lack of security or mimic popular online auction sites to obtain your information and then turn around to sell it at the online phish market. Depending on how well you’ve established yourself with your credit score, limit and history you could be a dink or the catch of the day. Only one thing is certain — they never throw a catch back.

Recently phishers have developed a pretty extensive tackle box full of life-like lures to snag your identity. Just last week Facebook was targeted with two phishing tournaments where scammers sent out convincing and official looking Facebook email to users linked to their own fake login page. Once the users took the bait the phishers logged in and collected everything they could about the account user. Similar lures are used on sites like Twitter and eBay where the bait usually bite — and hard.

There’s only one sure way to protect yourself from these attempts — remain vigilant and check every single link before submitting any personal information. If you fear that you were just the victim of a phishing attempt, log into your account and change your password and account information immediately. It will be increasingly harder to protect yourself as phishing gets more advanced and manipulative so it’s recommended that you protect your identity with ID theft prevention services like LifeLock. That way, if you ever do accidentally take the bait, there’s someone who can remove the hook and get you swimming safely back in the water.

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