Phishing is an old traditional way of stealing someone’s personal details like banking IDs and password or sensitive emails, social media credentials and use that information against that person in exchange for money.
The number of phishing scams is increasing day by day. The way people use the internet for their personal tasks like online transactions, sending out sensitive emails and many more is not safe and quite vulnerable to hackers. And trust me you don’t want to fall in a phishing scam.
But do not worry because today I have taken the charge to give you some tips to avoid phishing scams so that you keep your personal information safe and secure and far away from the reach of an imposter.
But first things first, let me give you an idea of what phishing scam looks like and how it works. So just sit back and read the article till the end so that you can prevent yourself from getting trapped into a phishing scam.
How does a phishing scam work?
Phishing or phishing scam is a process used by Cyber Criminals to intrude on someone’s privacy and get access to their personal details and credentials by presenting them as a trustworthy website.
With the help of a trojan horse code, hackers can easily go pass through your antivirus or firewall and fetch your personal details saved on your computer. But writing a malicious program that will survive in an anti-virus filled environment is hard.
The key to run a phishing scam is by creating a replica of a trusted and secured website which people can easily trust.
Every time the user clicks on the link of the fake website and enter their credentials on the website, the hacker from the other side records your data and then later use that data to harm you
I think now you have understood in what way a phishing scam works. Now allow me to show you how to prevent it.
Ways to avoid phishing scams.
If you are reading about phishing for the first time and then it is very normal to get scared. But looking on the bright side, there are several ways by which you can avoid this scam and that is what we are going to discuss.
So just relax and take some tips.
1. Be careful with your emails and personal data.
Generally, people are very casual with their online personal credentials and that is what makes them more vulnerable to cybercriminals. There is also a fact that most people do not have knowledge of cybercrime.
- There are numerous ways you can protect your personal data online.
- Do not save your passwords and IDs on your computer.
- Always keep a hardcopy of every online record.
- Never use the same password for every website you log into.
- Use common sense while reading emails received from unknown sources.
- Try not to click on any links which you think suspicious.
2. Do not respond to emails referring to your banking profile.
It is a very common thing that banking websites always send personalized emails and phishers do not. Now it is upon your common sense to understand the difference between these two.
Phishers often use sensational and creative emails to get your attention. You might have observed that you have received some emails saying, “ urgent requirement for your account details or someone else will hack your account”.
Now this as a mere example of a phisher message and there are tons like this. You can also receive some emails which contain grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. Therefore, I recommend you to properly read every mail you receive before responding.
3. Pop-Ups can be risky.
Pop-Ups are usually generated by the websites for ad purpose. But sometimes Pop-Ups can harm you too. There are cases you click on a pop-up that has interesting content and you are redirected to an unknown website (controlled by a hacker).
- So just follow these steps to avoid such situations.
- Never enter personal information on a pop-up window.
- Do not click links on a pop-up screens
- Avoid copying web addresses into your browser from pop-ups.
4. Copy the URL of a banking website into the address bar
Phishers often send emails that contain links to their fake websites which is the exact replica of the website you were looking for.
So it is recommended that if you get an email from your bank that you don’t feel genuine, then just don’t click on any links and discuss the matter with your bank and report the mail as spam.
5. Upgrade your system security.
Not in general but in some cases the system security like firewall or kind of anti-virus software can prevent you from getting into a phishing scam.
But if your security system is not up to date then you might get prone to the cybercriminals. If your security systems are already updated and you are still getting phisher emails then you can also use a VPN service for online surfing.
6. Don’t take any risks.
The best way to avoid phishing scams is just by ignoring them. If you think that the e-mail you have received from your bank does not look like an authentic email, then just don’t open it.
Try to keep a regular record of your account statements and bank balances and keep them in a hard copy format. If you see any suspicious activity in your account then starighlty report your bank.
Avoid downloading content or kind of files from emails received from unknown sources.
Finally.
In the end, it can be concluded that your security is your own responsibility. We can give you tips and tricks but ultimately its all upon you that what measures you will take for yourself to avoid getting trapped into a phishing scam.
The above blog gives you an idea of how to prevent yourself from this kind of situations and you can trust me on my points as these can be applied for real and you will be safe from all these scams.
