Phight Phishing With This Cloudeight Site Pick

There is no doubt that phishing is one of the most devious yet common ways that criminals and miscreants steal identities, credit card numbers, bank account passwords, Social Security numbers and more personal information. Most would guess that hacking is the way most people are ripped off, but that’s not true. Phishing emails and sites attempt to trick you into voluntarily entering your personal information on a web site that looks exactly like the target site.

If you get an email from American National Bank asking you to change your password for “security reasons” and you click a link in that email, you may well end up on a site that looks exactly like American National Bank. But don’t just a book by its cover. You might be inclined to type in all sorts of personal data, which then goes directly to the criminals’ database. If you should fall for something like this, you could find your credit cards charged, or your back accounts emptied, and perhaps your identity stolen. IF your identity is stolen, you’re in a real mess.

Banks, credit card companies, financial institutions, and other sites that store confidential information never send out emails asking you to click the link and change you password or change anything on your account. They don’t send out emails with the salutation “Dear valued customer” or “Dear customer”.

All current updated browsers include good anti-phishing protection. Always make sure you’re using the current version of your favorite browser.

Any time you get an email that asks you to click a link to change your password or asks you to log in and change any account that deals with money or with your Social Security number or other highly personal information… think before you click. There’s a 99% chance if you get an email like this that it’s a phishing email.

Today’s Cloudeight site pick is called PhishTank.. PhishTank helps you by letting you check a site and lets you help other by lettign you report a phishing site. .

Here’s how PhishTank’s creators describe their site:

“PhishTank is a collaborative clearing house for data and information about phishing on the Internet. Also, PhishTank provides an open API for developers and researchers to integrate anti-phishing data into their applications at no charge.”

Our site pick today is a serious site dealing with a very serious problem – phishing. It’s another tool that you now have at your disposal to help you learn more about phishing and how to protect yourself and your assets from the criminals and miscreants who seem to be lurking everywhere on the Web these days.

Please take a few moments to visit our site pick: PhishTank. We think you’ll find it a valuable resource.