In the internet, you can be a dog, and other people would not know it. That is basically the thing with online connectivity: You can interact with another person even without having an idea about what he or she really looks like. And even though you are given a picture for you to feast at, sometimes, you don't really expect that that facebook friend of yours named Justin Bieber, really is Justin Bieber, right?
That is why the world wide web also became susceptible to malicious attacks - and I'm not just talking about computer malwares, viruses, and stuff - but also deceptive practices that are very much rampant on the web.
Take for example phishing.
Phishing, pronounced l "fishing". As webopedia defines, phising is "the act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has. The Web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user’s information."
The usual prey of phishing scammers are your bank account passwords. But phishing can also be used to juice out usernames and passwords for online gaming accounts. Take for example this e-mail:
That is why the world wide web also became susceptible to malicious attacks - and I'm not just talking about computer malwares, viruses, and stuff - but also deceptive practices that are very much rampant on the web.
Take for example phishing.
Phishing, pronounced l "fishing". As webopedia defines, phising is "the act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has. The Web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user’s information."
The usual prey of phishing scammers are your bank account passwords. But phishing can also be used to juice out usernames and passwords for online gaming accounts. Take for example this e-mail:
This is a typical phishing scam. Ragnarok Online is a popular online game that originated from Korea. At first glance, you may assume that this is from the legitimate RO admin because of the contact name, but if you look carefully, the e-mail address of the hoax RO admin is using a host e-mail account from g-mail - which should not be because the RO admin has its own e-mail with the "levelupgames" domain.
If you reply to this kind of e-mail scams, you may get immediate replies because they have already set a message that will automatically be sent to you. Like this one:
Scams are present both in real life and the online world. If an e-mail is forwarded to you, asking for sensitive, information, it never hurts to check the details first, and know simple ways on how to prevent phishing scams.
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