Phishing Scams And Credit Cards

Posted by Nick Niesen on October 29th, 2010

When it comes to new technology all have come with various drawbacks and credit cards have been no different. One of the specific drawbacks come in form of phishing. Phishing is done when a person uses a fake email or fake online shopping websites in order to gain information about you, your bank, or your credit card. This has become extremely common and something to be extra careful and mindful about.

The interest has made phishing extremely easy and has become a very popular form of theft amongst thieves. First it is started by an email that is phrased very cleverly and it appears that is has arrived directly from your bank or credit card company. This email generally asks that you provided various information that is typically confidential in order to ?verify? yourself and the information that is held. Additionally, this email could come with a threat of account closure unless you provide the information that is necessary according to the content within the email.

Another extremely popular phishing method is that the thief will create a website that is fake and useless, accept that it will accept payments made via credit cards. This is the only purpose the website will hold, is to essentially take your money. You will likely never receive the products that were advertised and if you were to accept either form of phishing you could unfortunately have the result of high credit card bills or a bank account that has been depleted of funds.

It is important that you learn and begin to protect yourself from these phishing instance. You should only reveal information after you have verified the accuracy of the email. Generally, the only thing you will have to do is make a phone call to the bank or credit card company and gain confirmation that the email is in fact true. Also you should take a close look at the email, this will help you understand if it is in fact valid. Typically phishing emails begin with a Dear Customer or Dear Sir/Madam, the company if truly contacting you, would use your full name. Additionally, check to make sure the company or bank name is spelled correctly, often times a phisher will incorrectly spell the company name.

Another thing you should look for is if the request comes in the form of an image, this should be an important clue that they have something to hide from scanners that are anti-phishing.