When You Can't Tell The Phishing Emails From The Legit Ones, Just Ignore Them All
from the smart-security dept
Phishing is a common way for criminals to try and steal people's passwords or other personal information, and it depends on phishers crafting emails and fake sites that look enough like the real thing that people will willingly surrender their information. Banks and authorities are obviously aware of phishing, but that doesn't stop them from undermining their online security efforts, as well as their online products, by sending out legit emails that look like phishing attempts. The latest instance sees some British cybercrime police attempting to notify more than 2,000 people in the country that their personal information, including credit card numbers had been stolen. They get an A for effort, but an F for execution, since they're letting people know by sending them an email, and asking them to get in touch -- which plenty of people aren't doing, because it sounds an awful lot like a phishing scam. The rise of phishing has made consumers loathe to trust anyone they don't know from whom they receive emails asking for contact or personal information -- and rightly so. But if banks and authorities are going to tell people that's the right thing to do, they shouldn't be at all surprised when their emails go ignored as well.![Hide This Hide this](https://ii.techdirt.com/s/t/i/topclose.png)
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At the same time, some companies still require too much information over the phone. Sprint for example asks its mobile customers for their phone number (reasonable, as it doubles as your account number) but also for "the password associated with your account". Since most people reuse passwords for different accounts (e-mail, Amazon, banking), an unscrupulous CSR would have an easy time ripping a customer off.
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HAHAH!
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Doh!
the hard drive, they sent a fed-ex letter. Which
was waiting for me when I arrived at home a few
weeks afte the inital news report.
I'm still peeved that they were careless with the
information but at least they handled it fairly well.
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1. E-mail sends you to phish-like Fidelity website (ip address only).
2. Website asks for some personal info
3. Website redirects you to Fidelity's "your personal info could have gotten stolen, how to avoid this" web page.
People would be more likely to read that website instead of some stupid e-newsletter.
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Re:
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I guess that is on of the best solutions
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duh
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there is a way to follow links risk-less: CallingI
CallingID Link Advisor automatically checks the links you receive in your email, web-mail and instant messenger before you follow them and verifies that they are safe.
After installing it Place your mouse over any link you received and CallingID Link Advisor will provide you with real, accurate data about the site and a strait-forward risk assessment. Works with all popular web browsers, email clients and instant messangers
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Distinguishing between Phishing and Reality
Having thought about this a while, the best answer seems to be to avoid using email for any financial transactions. Don't give out your email address to your bank, and then you'll know that any email that purports to be from "Chase Bank" is a fake because you don't talk to Chase Bank via email. (You know, there are still a few people in this country who do not have even one email account!)
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i want to confrim my credit card remaining balance
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