Phishy Business

As my classmates and I become more familiar with social media, and our own blog and Twitter accounts, there is more information we must know to protect our online accounts. Phishing has been a frequent way to get into personal accounts of Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace.  Phishing is defined as "the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication." Phishing works by sending out emails or messages to grab people’s attention. The messages  are usually something you would see from a friend like “Hey someone told me this about you”. The scammers do this to catch your eye and draw you in. If you fall for the scam reset your password immediately. If you have trouble logging in after resetting your password, contact the support team of your site.

This week, the website Mashable reported that there was a Twitter phishing attack spreading through the system. This attack comes  in a form of a direct message and has been spreading rapidly. The message will show up with a casual “lol, is this you” which links to the site “bzpharma”. If you click this link, spammers have hold of your account and will send the direct mail to all of your friends and the cycle will continue.

The famous CNN news anchor, Rick Sanchez was voted once of the most popular bloggers on Twitter, with nearly 40,000 followers and ranking 20^th on Twitterholic list. Sanchez was also a victim of a phishing scam in the beginning of January. The scammer tweeted on behalf of Sanchez “I am high on crack right now might not be coming into work today". 

Though this may be humorous to some, Sanchez was not amused. The tweet did not last lost and Sanchez announced the invasion of his Twitter account.

 Here are some tips to avoid phishing scams:

·         Watch out for “phishy” emails- This could be an email from someone you have never heard from before, or even a made up company name. They will try to temp you with the illusion that you have won a prize or to claim your winnings.

·         Don’t click on links within emails that ask for your personal information- Hopefully we all know not to give out our personal information unless it is a verified and safe site. Do not be fooled by “copy cat” sites.

·         Protect your computer with spam filters, anti-virus and anti-spyware software, and a firewall, and keep them up to date.

·         Know that phishing can also happen by phone- scammers may also call you and pretend to be a company looking for your information, never give out your information over the phone, unless you are 100% positive it is safe.

·         Act immediately if you’ve been hooked by a phisher- If you provided account numbers, PINS, or passwords to a phisher, notify the companies with whom you have the accounts right away.

Follow these tips and we should all be safe from those nasty phishy scammers.