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FAQ: What is phishing?

Fraudulent email, also known as "phishing", is email that pretends to come from a legitimate commercial source and solicits personal information from the recipient. Whereas the purpose of spam is to sell a product or service, the purpose of phishing is to get information from you that can be used for identity theft.

Inspect all commercial email messages carefully before responding. Identity theft is a common and expensive form of crime.

For example, a message may appear to come from an online merchant of which you are a regular customer. The message may ask you to update your account information, including your credit card, social security number, and other important information. If this message is not really from a legitimate merchant, this information could be used for identity theft.

A phishing message may have some or all of these characteristics:

• the message claims to originate from a merchant
• the message asks you to provide personal information
• the message includes a Web link to a domain that does not match the name of the merchant

  For example, imagine the message claims to be from eBay, but the link points to http://ebay423.detaliesbbl.com/. The domain is "detaliesbbl", not ebay.com. This message is probably phishing.

• the message promises financial rewards if you provide the requested information
• the message threatens action against you if you do not provide the requested information

Not all messages with these characteristics are phishing. Use your best judgment when deciding what is phishing and what is not.

Last updated: 2008-09-02 14:05:44

Keywords: phish, fraud

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