Phishing

Phishing is a scam where Internet fraudsters send spam or pop-up messages to lure personal and financial information from unsuspecting victims. (A similar scam, vishing, occurs through the use of a phone.) These phony emails or pop-ups include false links, which send you to a spoofed website, to fool you into revealing personal data. Often, phishing scams seem to come from a service that you trust, like your credit union, credit card company, or social networking site.

Pharming

Pharming is a scam where Internet hackers redirect Internet traffic from one website to a false website to retrieve personal data in order to commit fraud. Normally, the spoofed website will adopt the design of the target website and sometimes has a similar web address or will conceal the address of the bogus website. Pharming is more dangerous than phishing, because you can be redirected to a false website without any participation or knowledge on your part.

Aviod Getting Hooked

• Don't reply to email or pop-up messages that ask for personal or financial information.
• Don't click on links in a message that ask for personal or financial information.
• Don't cut and paste a link from a message into your Web browser. Phishers can make links look like they go one place, but that actually send you to a different site, which asks for personal or financial information.
• Don't call the phone number listed on a message that asks you to update your information or access a "refund." Because they use Voice over Internet Protocol technology, the area code you call does not reflect where the scammers really are. If you need to reach an organization you do business with, call the number on your financial statements or on the back of your credit card, or type in the web address yourself.
• Change your online banking or shopping account passwords often. Experts suggest every three to six months. If your information is caught, your passwords should be out-of-date by the time crooks try to sell it to other phishers.
• Review credit card and bank account statements as soon as you receive them. Check for unauthorized charges.

Forward spam that is phishing for information to spam@uce.gov and to the company, bank, or organization impersonated in the phishing email.

To learn more, visit OnGuardOnline.gov.