Phishing Messages
The most common form of cyber fraud is phishing messages. CAREFUL! No administrator of a company will ever ask you to send him the password of your account!
What is phishing
Phishing is a fraudulent attempt, usually made via e-mail, to steal personal information. The best way to protect yourself from phishing is to learn how to recognize a message of this kind. Phishing emails usually appear to come from a well-known organization and ask for personal information – such as a credit card number, account number or password. Many times the phishing attempts seem to come from sites, services and companies with which you don’t even have an account. In order for Internet criminals to successfully steal your personal information, they must get you to access a website or send an e-mail. Phishing emails will almost always tell you to click on a link that will take you to a site where personal information is requested or to reply to that email providing a specific set of personal information. Legitimate organizations would never request this information, much less by email.
How do you identify a phishing email?
The greeting is generic. Phishing emails are usually sent in large batches. To save time, Internet criminals use generic names, such as “Attention ASE Bucharest user”, so that senders do not have to type the names of all recipients individually. If you don’t see your name, you should be suspicious. Fake link. Even if the link has a well-known name somewhere in it, it does not mean that it is related to the real organization. Hover your mouse over the respective link and you will see if it matches what appears in the email. If there is a discrepancy, do not click on that link. Also, most websites where it is safe to enter personal information start with “https” – “S” comes of course. If you don’t see “https”, don’t continue. Personal information is requested. The purpose of a phishing e-mail is to trick you into providing personal information (username and password). If you receive an email requesting personal information, this is most likely a phishing attempt. A sense of urgency. Cybercriminals want you to give them your personal information now. They do this by making you believe that something has happened that requires you to act quickly. The faster your information is obtained, the faster you can move on to another victim.