ALERTS

Pharming & Phishing

Pharming

Pharming is when criminal hackers redirect Internet traffic from one website to a different, identical-looking site in order to trick you into entering your user name and password into the database on their fake site.  Banking or similar financial sites are often the target of these attacks, in which criminals try to acquire your bank account, steal your identity, or commit other kinds of fraud in your name.

Fend off Phishing

“We suspect an unauthorized transaction on your account.  To ensure that your account is not compromised, please click the link below and confirm your identity.”

“During our regular verification of accounts, we couldn’t verify your information.  Please click here to update and verify your information.”

Have you received e-mail with a similar message?  It’s a scam called “phishing” – and it involves internet fraudsters who send spam or pop-up messages to lure personal information (credit card numbers, bank account information, social insurance numbers, passwords, or other sensitive information) from unsuspecting victims.

In computing, phishing (also known as carding and spoofing) is a form of social engineering, characterized by attempts to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business in an apparently official electronic communication, such as an e-mail or an instant message.  The term phishing arises from the use of increasingly sophisticated lures to “fish” for users’ financial information and passwords.

Read more about Pharming & Phishing