Phishing is one of the fastest growing cyber crime and the cost to consumers millions of dollars per year. Pronounced “fishing”, the name of spammers use of fake e-mails to “fish” for information in an attempt to their customers to disclose personal data such as credit card numbers, bank account numbers, Social Security numbers and passwords. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail or instant messaging, and often leads users to give details on a particular website. It is one of the biggest threats on the Internet and its users should be made more aware of what it is and what they can do. Phishing is so much on the Internet that if you receive an e-mail allegedly from your bank, it’s will be either a criminal attempt to enter your login information or a real e-mail warned you to be careful of this scam.
The rapidly growing class of identity theft scams on the Internet has caused both short-and long-term economic damage, which millions of people every day. First appearance more than a decade ago, phishing has become the international electronic crime of choice for both amateurs and professionals together. This scam usually works like this: a Scammer send an e-mail message making it seem as if it is an official notice of a company can be financial or other interests, such as your bank, PayPal or eBay, and ask for your personal information such as the Social Security number, account number or password. These e-mails are also becoming more personalized, making it much value to their victims and has become such a problem on AOL that they are posting on their instant messenger stating: “No one working at AOL asks for your password or billing information. ” These types of attacks have outnumbered e-mails infected with viruses and Trojans.
