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We all know it by now. They are watching us
and sizing up their profits. The Phishers and other online thieves are
targeting our money and personal data --- and they're getting more and more
cunning. The less talented ones hit our bank accounts or our credit cards
and make a clean getaway. More gifted thieves concentrate on stealing whole
identity.
Hard to believe that 10 million people have
had online criminals open new credit card accounts in their name, and worse
than you think, even apply for mortgages. This bizaar web of deceit can take
years to untangle. Ineffective firewalls make easy pickings for hackers and
a slam dunk for ruthless employees bent on selling information.
If you've been online for more than a few
months, you know the look-alike emails supposedly from say, Citibank,
requesting you to update your personal information. These are clever
imitations and should never be responded to. In these emails, they like to
claim that 'your account may have been tampered with'. Yeah, right! But if
you have any doubt, delete the email and go to your bank's URL and
update if necessary. Opening the link in the email is opening the door for
these phishing thieves.
These scams are so easy to create and so
difficult to trace that criminals are ditching other lesser hacking methods
and setting up phishing camps. As they become more shrewd, it is difficult
for even the most observant user to tell the real from the fake. Even the
'from' field of the message would appear to come from your bank and if you
were to open the link (don't test this), it would lead to a page that
duplicates the real company and a believer might oblige with their personal
information... that's when the mayhem begins.
As legal authorities spin circles, the
phishers change server addresses frequently, but most set up shop in foreign
countries where it is harder to get to them. Here in our country, they have
learned to sidestep the law by using zombie PC's: a PC used without the
owner's knowledge.
In June 2004, 1422 phishing attacks were
reported --- that's up 19% from the month before. And for a 12 month period
ending in April, victims lost $1.2 billion!. Small wonder the online
perpetrators are also shopping from home... why go out when you can find
your next victim sitting in your PJs.
Oh, there's talk in legislation about
enacting anti-phishing laws, but it's hard to get excited about this when
anti-spam laws were too-little, too-late to stop an out of control problem.
Unfortunately, like pyramid schemes and
Nigerian pleas, it's up you and me to protect ourselves. Too many of us
aren't savvy enough about Internet security. We have to learn to treat this
like the door-to-door salesman and not respond to uninvited sales pitches
received in our inboxes.
© 2004 Esther Smith
About
the Author: Smith has published numerous articles and writes a blog for
all artists:
http://the-self-taught-artist.com/blog.html
She also coaches new students on how to leave the time-for-money trap and set up
Leveraged Income for life.
http://thepermanentventure.com/dcc.htm If you can’t sing or ride a
bull, you better learn how to make your money work for more money. |