Beware of the Newest Activity Online: Phishing

Do not respond to any e-mail that asks for personal information from you, such as account number, credit card number, user names, passwords, etc. The favorite target groups of phishers seem to be very young children and senior citizens, as they do not often ask for credit reports, fill out credit card applications or solicit loans. Finally, if you suspect you've been a victim of this fraud, get a copy of your credit report immediately to check for unusual activity. According to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, phishers send millions of e-mails a day, getting about 5% response. If you discover that you've been a victim of identity theft, close your account at once and.

Phishing for an Identity

Steven Carlson is an expert in identity theft and issues relating to credit restructuring solutions. When you look at the link in the message it appears to go to PayPal's website, but when you click on it a different address (one of the scammer's website) loads. If something seems fishy (no pun intended), do not trust it. Let me say that one more time DO NOT TRUST EMAIL MESSAGES. Doing so will verify that you are not falling victim to Phishing.

Beware Of Spam Withdrawals

Probably become a telemarketer or credit card debt collector. They were worried that I was lonely and offered to cure my loneliness if only I gave them a credit card number. I have a client who recently increased the sensitivity of their ISP spam blocker to the point that nothing was getting delivered to their company email accounts, including their own company newsletter. Your Internet Service Provider should also offer an anti-spam application, but be careful how you use it. They had effectively built an email brick wall that stopped the spam and everything else.

Customers Demand Internet Privacy

And it's not only about e-mail adresses and credit card numbers either. You don't want your customers to have to search for the info, do you? They might not find it, and then it's. Also, make all contact information (e-mail, address, phone number, etc. Tell what you will do when you change the privacy policy. Make sure that your Internet privacy policy is prominently available on your site, preferrably from every page.

How to Write a Privacy Policy

Moreover, if you also ask for their address, phone number, credit card number, bank names, account numbers, health history, or current job information, they start worrying about what you are going to do with all that information. Always include one or more ways in which customers can contact you regarding privacy issues. For example, where they can learn more about their right to privacy or who they can talk to if they have a question about their privacy. Sometimes people might have some specific questions that are not explicitly covered in your Privacy Policy. This contributes a lot in terms of reassurance.

Internet Theft and Fraud

Anything from credit card numbers to account information, passwords, billing data and personal phone numbers and addresses have been stolen and used for criminal purposes. Feel sorry for these people that have to go through all the rigmarole of sorting all these frauds from the real sites out there. I doubt there is a religion on Earth that teaches that theft is a balanced respectful action. I do know that when the country of Australia was founded it was done so on the backs of convicts, many of who had only stolen bread to survive. That's a kind of theft that will question your moral value system.

How To Stop Spam (Especially If You're Already a Victim)

Many of these anti-spam filters work on the principle of White Lists (legitimate email addresses that you DO want to receive email from) and Black Lists (spammer email addresses that you do NOT want to receive email from. Most anti-spam filters need to be trained, however, so you'll have to occasionally tell the filter that something is NOT spam that it inadvertently put into the Junk Mail folder. Learn how to train your anti-spam software and it will work wonders for you. Check to see if your ISP or hosting company has anti- spam technology in place, to catch spam before it even hits your Inbox. A catch-all email address is set up if you have your own website, and it is intended to catch all of the incoming emails sent to your domain even if there is no legitimate mailbox by that name.

Evict the Spammers from Your Inbox

Just as importantly, an effective anti spam solution should reside at the email gateway, not at the desktop. With so many different methods of filtering spam, no single software-based desktop anti spam solution is capable of effectively stopping spam before it reaches the inbox. Without protection at the gateway, mail servers waste massive amounts of bandwidth and storage space processing every message, wanted or not, and end users face the unenviable task of deciding what to do with the countless spam messages that successfully reach them. Although it takes a person only a moment to process a message and identify it as spam, it is difficult to automate that human process because no single message characteristic consistently identifies spam. Take a Consolidated Approach to Anti Spam.