+ What is Phishing..?

In common Phishing is a fraudulent attempt, usually made through email, to steal your personal information.

Phishing emails usually appear to come from a well-known organization and ask for your personal information — such as credit card number, social security number, account number or password. Often times phishing attempts appear to come from sites, services and companies with which you do not even have an account.

       HOW TO DETECT PHISHING:
Its very easy if you are careful and its also very hard if you are not…

1. Generic greeting. Phishing emails are usually sent in large batches. To save time, Internet criminals use generic names like “First Generic Bank Customer” so they don’t have to type all recipients’ names out and send emails one-by-one. If you don’t see your name, be suspicious.
2. Forged link. Even if a link has a name you recognize somewhere in it, it doesn’t mean it links to the real organization. Roll your mouse over the link and see if it matches what appears in the email. If there is a discrepency, don’t click on the link. Also, websites where it is safe to enter personal information begin with “https” — the “s” stands for secure. If you don’t see “https” do not proceed.
3. Requests personal information. The point of sending phishing email is to trick you into providing your personal information. If you receive an email requesting your personal information, it is probably a phishing attempt.
4. Sense of urgency. Internet criminals want you to provide your personal information now. They do this by making you think something has happened that requires you to act fast. The faster they get your information, the faster they can move on to another victim.

here is a small example of phishing
and like this also
www.micosoft.com
www.mircosoft.com
www.verify-microsoft.com
instead of www.microsoft.com

How to identify a fraudulent e-mail?
Here are a few phrases to look for if you think an e-mail message is a phishing scam.

“Verify your account.”
Legitimate sites will never ask you to send passwords, login names, Social Security numbers, or any other personal information through e-mail.

“If you don’t respond within 48 hours, your account will be closed.”
These messages convey a sense of urgency so that you’ll respond immediately without thinking.

“Dear Valued Customer.”
Phishing e-mail messages are usually sent out in bulk andoften do not contain your first or last name.

“Click the link below to gain access to your account.”
HTML-formatted messages can contain links or forms that you can fill out just as you’d fill out a form on a Web site. The links that you are urged to click may contain all or part of a real company’s name and are usually “masked,” meaning that the link you see does not take you to that address but somewhere different, usually a scam Web site.

Notice in the following example that resting the mouse pointer on the link reveals the real Web address, as shown in the box with the yellow background. The string of cryptic numbers looks nothing like the company’s Web address, which is a suspicious sign.

So the Bottom line to defend from phishing attack is
1. Never assume that an email is valid based on the sender’s email address.
2. A trusted bank/organization such as paypal will never ask you for your full name and password in a PayPal email.
3. An email from trusted organization will never contain attachments or software.

4. Clicking on a link in an email is the most insecure way to get to your account.