Search Engine Optimisation
Website Marketing and Promotion

Spams and Scams

Phishing Websites

Phishing is used to entice Internet users to supply personal or identity information. There are about 8 million Phishing attempts each day, and the attempts are increasing.

A survey commissioned by VeriSign, revealed that 88 percent of Web users are at risk from online fraud because they cannot identify the different forms of Phishing currently taking place.

Cyber criminals are becoming adept at mimicking legitimate Web sites. It is important to verify suspicious of generic greetings instead of being personalised, urgent calls-to-action, account status threats, requests for personal information, and fake domain names/links.

Google's Gmail and Microsoft's Hotmail have been targeted as part of industry-wide phishing schemes. More than 30,000 names and passwords from e-mail providers, including Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, Gmail and other service providers were posted online.

The Phishing Schemes:

• Spear Phishing: Spear Phishing uses specific targeting. The targets may be the customers of a bank or organisation, and especially senior executives.
• Business Services Phishing: The targeting may be services such as Yahoo! or Google AdWords. Customers are sent emails alerting them that their accounts required updating.
• Phishing that Plays on Economic Fears: Phishing emails may look like they are coming from a financial institution.
• Blended Phishing/Malware Threats: Some attacks combine Phishing with malware for a blended attack model. By clicking on the link inside a Phishing e-card, the user is taken to a spoofed Website which downloads a Trojan to the victim's computer.

So, unless you are absolutely sure that you know the sender, beware of clicking an address of a Website in an Email. The Website may not be genuine. The Phishing Website is usually an exact replica – so it may be impossible to tell the difference between a legitimate Website and a Phishing Website.

For a Secure Web site, look for the following:

• SSL: The https:// protocol is the world standard for Web security. It is used to encrypt and protect information transmitted over the Web. While some Phishing sites do have a secured Web address, many do not.
• The Padlock Icon: This icon must appear in the actual browser itself and not inside the content of the page.
• The Web address: A Phishing site will have an unknown domain, but will use a well known brand in some other part of the Web address.
• Green address bar: When this appears in the Browser, the site has been authenticated.