What Is Phising?
Phishing is a specific type of cyber crime that is designed to steal your personal identity data and financial credentials.
Here’s how phishing works: cyber criminals create a fake web site that looks just like a bank’s web site (or any web site that conducts online financial transactions). They then try to trick people into visiting this site and typing in their confidential data, such as their login, password or PIN. Typically, they do this by sending out large numbers of emails which appear to come from a particular bank or financial institution, and which contain a link to the fake site. Of course, many people who receive the email are not customers of the bank in question.
However, only a small percentage of the large number of people who get the email need fall for the scam for the cyber criminals to make money.
If you click on the link, you’re taken to the fake web site and asked to type in your details. Such emails often try to put you off your guard by using the real bank’s style and logo, by using a link that resembles the real bank’s URL or by including your name to make it seem as though the email is addressed to you personally. The email usually gives a fake reason for sending you the email and asking you for your personal details: the bank is conducting random security checks, or the bank has made changes to its infrastructure and need everyone to re-confirm their details.
When you enter your details on a fake website, they’ll be recorded and sent to the cyber criminals running the scam. And once they have your details, they’ll use them to take money from your account. Often they withdraw just a small amount, so as not to arouse suspicion. Of course, there are lots of potential victims, so they only need a small amount from many accounts to generate a large profit.
