Attorney General Provides Tips To Evade Phishing Scams

As per news reported by THEBEACONRECORD on July 21, 2008, Gartner informed way back in December 2007 that US had incurred a loss of $3.2 Billion. Moreover, there was a sudden increase in phishing attacks, nearly 1.3 Million more cases were compared to the cases reported in 2006.

Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo, while discussing phishing scams, took into account the facts provided by Gartner's security experts that the advancement of Internet technology and techniques developed by scammers together with the obscurity and pace of meeting somebody over the net are encouraging the proliferation of "phishing" attacks - a kind of harmful and very common email scam.

Consequently, the Attorney has offered a few tips to consumers to stop them from becoming targets of the phishers.

Cuomo asks users to beware of signs of phishing. Therefore, messages that seem to have come from a prestigious financial organization should be inspected carefully. The customer makes sure whether any of the keywords in the message are wrongly spelt or not.

According to security experts, incorrect spellings are common features of phishing messages as they frequently come from abroad or perhaps the phishers are trying to dodge spam filters. Moreover, watch out for URL's with "@" in the header, as these are frequently utilized by phishing scams.

Cuomo advises users to deploy a firewall and anti-virus software systems. These software can prevent the damaging programs forwarded by phishers by means of spam email from infecting the computer.

Besides, the client should not divulge his or her financial details to spam e-mails. Security experts have disclosed that legitimate corporations don't communicate with consumers unless the user does so. An important example is of the IRS, which keeps alerting users that any message from the IRS should be considered illegal.

Finally, the Attorney General cautions users that if they become phishing targets, then they should notify it immediately. Users targeted by phishers should immediately contact spam@uce.gov or at http://www.ic3.gov/, the Internet Fraud Complaint Center. One more helpful resource is the Anti-Phishing Working Group that sends complaints to the proper organizations and offices.

Related article: Attorney Accused of Unlawfully Accessing E-Mails of County Official

» SPAMfighter News - 7/29/2008