What is phishing?
Phishing is a scam in which the attacker sends an email purporting to be from a valid financial or eCommerce provider. The email often uses fear tactics in an effort to entice the intended victim into visiting a fraudulent website. Once on the website, which generally looks and feels much like the valid eCommerce/banking site, the victim is instructed to login to their account and enter sensitive financial information such as their bank PIN number, their Social Security number, mother’s maiden name, etc.
Washington Mutual Bank phishing email
SunTrust phishing email
eBay phishing scam
Citibank phishing scam
Charter One phishing email
PayPal phishing email
IRS Tax Refund Phishing Scam
The problem is, the page being targeted on that site allows the phishers to ‘bounce’ the user to another site altogether.The email used in the orginal IRS tax refund phishing scam has the following characteristics:
Reporting phishing scams
If in the United States, you can also forward a copy to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) using the address [email protected]. Be sure toforward the email as an attachmentso that all important formatting and header information is preserved; otherwise the email will be of little use for investigative purposes