Tips on How to Beat Online Fraudsters

Organized criminal gangs are targeting online consumers with ever more sophisticated blended phishing attacks, some of which even find out details of their interests and use them to generate phishing emails tailored to tempt them into giving away their identities. According to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, phishing is on increase again, the number of newly reported phishing campaigns reached 15,820 in October an increase of 127% over last October.

In our day-to-day lives, both at home and at work, we are spending a great deal more of our time on our computers and on the internet. This familiarity with technology can regrettably make people more susceptible, or worse yet – more gullible. Today consumers seem to trust technology more then they do individuals. This level of blind trust in technology, combined perhaps with our less cautious nature around the holidays, can provide a target-rich environment for cyber criminals:

Last holiday season, Phishers were relying on fairly basic socially engineered emails (albeit with very poor grammar and spelling) enticing consumers to “click here” on an embedded link within the email directing the recipient to an illegitimate “copy cat” website that looked identical to the real thing. Many Internet users were unknowingly divulging their most personal financial information: PINs, Credit Card Numbers, Social Security Numbers, Usernames and Passwords to cyber criminals.

As awareness has grown about Phishing within the Internet community, the tactics used by Phishers have evolved since the last holiday season to make it more difficult for the consumer to realize they are being duped.

Be on your guard this holiday season - Ho Ho Oh No - Don't let Phishers and Pharmers become your "Nightmare before Christmas." Here are some tips:

1. Be certain your PC’s operating system is up-to-date with the latest security patches as well as your Anti Virus and Firewall software.

2. No matter how official it looks never click on an embedded URL contained in any email. Manually enter the URL in your browser address bar for your banking and credit card websites.

3. Do not fill in forms contained within email, your personal financial information should never be sent by email. Only send your personal financial information via a secure website - verify that the URL contains https:// and that the closed lock appears on the lower right hand side of the browser for a secure website connection.

4. Never click on an email attachment unless you know the sender and you were in fact expecting to receive the attachment.

5. Monitor your banking and credit card accounts on line and check for illegitimate transactions regularly.

6. Use an on line credit monitoring service that offers alerts when there are any changes to your credit report i.e. new accounts and purchases.

7. Register with a credit card security system that requires a password to authorize transactions, such as Verified by Visa or MasterCard SecureCode.

8. Do not use the auto fill facility on websites for credit card and other personal details.

9. Use alternative secure online payment systems such as PayPal.

10. Finally, common sense is your best defense if it looks too good to be true then it probably is.