17. What is phishing, and is it dangerous?

Phishing is a criminal activity on the Internet. It is designed to trick you into revealing confidential information such as online bank account access details. Occasionally the trick is also to cause you to download a virus or worm onto your computer.

The criminals send you emails or instant messages which appear to have come from a trustworthy source like your bank, or any popular website such as YouTube, FaceBook, Google, Twitter or MySpace. They will be formatted to look like an official message, and will usually suggest there has been some problem with your account, and ask you to reply 'confirming' confidential details, such as your account number, password or other security details. In truth you would be supplying these details to a criminal!

Often you will be asked to click on a link to a web site. If you do this, the site will probably look like the official site of your bank (or whoever), but is really operated by the fraudsters. Naturally, any information you enter there doesn't go to your bank...

As a general rule, banks never send such emails. Always assume they are phishing emails and are fraudulent, and simply delete them.

Phishing emails can also tell you you've won a big lottery prize, a beautiful foreign girl wants to make friends with you, or that someone in a distant country wants to transfer a large sum of money through your bank account. The best advice is just to delete them, unread.

One advantage of email over physical post is that, if it is genuine, the originator can always re-send it if necessary. Deleting unexpected emails is probably the best policy!

Modern email programs have some built-in functions which help protect you from phishing messages, but for more help about email filtering systems and their setup, please contact our helpdesk for advice.

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