Phishing is quite similar to Fishing. The way a bite is used to track a prey, similarly, phishing is used to trick the online users. In the recent past years, most of us have been the eyewitness of bait float, which creeps into through e-mail, disguised as an official-looking logo from a retail firm, credit union or a bank. The main target of Phishing operations are major credit unions and banks. The phishing operations make prey of customers’ fears regarding identity theft to commit thefts of their identities like the given below:
We recently reviewed your account, and suspect it has been accessed by an unauthorized third party. As a result, your account has been frozen. To regain access, please take these steps ... Our Technical Services Department has installed new security software. To upgrade your account, please do the following. There is a pending charge on your account. If you dispute this charge, you must.
Thereafter, the users are instructed by the e-mail to click on a link that takes them to a Web site - yet again, very official-looking - where users are asked to log-in with their password, make sure of their date of birth and social security number, and so on. Once the users are trapped in the bait, they are on the way to get their identity stolen, which is liable to an expensive and time-consuming irritation.
There have been many of alert warning about phishing for several years from government agencies, financial institutions, computer experts and the media and there exits even a world wide consortium, called the Anti-Phishing Working Group, to battle the problem, but the problem of phishing is still persisting.
