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Adopt a ‘need to know’ approach for
your personal information.
Spammers live by a code-bait 1000 hooks, get
a few bites. This pays off for them, sending emails doesn’t cost a
thing, and once one template email has been created, it’s only a matter
of retrieving email addresses, which isn’t that hard either. If the spam
email happens to hit one actual client of a major corporation with the
corporation’s logo, it is likely that even those who are spam and
Internet aware will take the bait.
Don’t get hooked. It only takes phishers and pharmers a few bites to
make their phishing trip pay off-and pay off large.
Another fraud attempt can be done at these fake corporate sites as well.
Phishers will booby-trap their site so that your web server secretly
downloads a Trojan horse-a backdoor program-so that the phishers can
gain remote control of your computer. You’ve probably heard the stories
of people coming home to find games being played on their computer….with
no one on the computer.
These phishers are not kids, well maybe they are…but we can’t view them
that way. These people are criminals who are looking at stealing your
identity and using your personal information for fraudulent purposes. To
top it all off, these phishers and pharmers are getting much more
sophisticated as the general public becomes aware and careful of the
‘old systems of pharming and phishing’.
How do you protect yourself? Be smart. Watch where you are inputting
your information on the Internet. Adopt a ‘need to know’ approach for
your personal information. If you don’t think they need to know, don’t
enter the information. By keeping a firewall running on your computer
whenever you are online will help to deter the amount of hijackers
hitting your computer searching for information. Turn your Internet
connection off when you are not using your computer, or turn your
computer off altogether. Ensure that everyone in your household knows
about these pharming and phishing scams so that no one falls victim to
these scams.
If you think you are a victim of identity theft, contact your local law
enforcement office immediately and report the situation, and begin
documenting everything in writing.
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