Tips for avoiding phishing
Phishing is one kind of fraud and hacking scheme which used by hackers to obtain your personal details. So in this article we will see what phishing is and how we can avoid it to make our data safe.
What is phishing?
Phishing is the attempt use by hackers or any other person who wants to get personal detail from other users. Usually such users use email service to get your personal data illegally. They use the email services to send you mails in name of any company or your bank to asking your private information like address, bank account, and password. And using such information they do illegal activities which can harm that person financially. So it is quite dangerous thing and one should be very careful to avoid it. Read below paragraph to check out how it can be harmful to you.
How can it harm?
Well, as I said phishing is done for getting your private information like your bank detail and passwords. So if such person will get your all details then it can harm you financially by hacking your account and all that. You can lose your money by giving such details to hackers. It all depends on type of the phishing, so it can even create worse conditions for anyone so better not to fall for it. Read below to know what kind of emails can be phishing attempt.
Which emails can categorize as Phishing attempt?
Hackers are smart enough to attract people with different kind of mails. So it is up to us not to fall for it. Here are few examples of phishing emails.
People always used to get emails from their bank. But let me tell you no banks will going to ask you about your personal information, bank detail and passwords. So if you get any mail from your bank for asking all these detail never give any personal detail. Go to your bank and confirm about such mail first.
This is also common that people get emails by saying that they have won prize or certain amount. Such email always claims that you have won prize or money and to get that you have to give your bank detail or other information. Never fall for such thing. No one is going give you free money.
Same thing goes for mobile SMS. Hackers also try and send SMS to different users by saying that their numbers have chosen for prize and money. And to get that they have to give personal detail, this is similar phishing attempt like above I mentioned but this is done through SMS. So never fall for such SMS too.
Emails in the name of sites you have joined. Hackers also try this thing. They send mails in the name of sites you have joined and ask to you about your personal detail otherwise you will lose your account. No need to worry about it, confirm about such email on the site itself and then only respond. No need to give any kind of information from starting.
So above are few examples of phishing attempts. So if you get any kind of this email or similar emails then don’t respond to them ever or you can put yourself in trouble. Now read below paragraph to know about steps which you should follow to avoid phishing.
What are the steps to avoid Phishing?
There are few basic thing which you can follow and easily avoid such fraud attempts. Follow them and you will surely be safe from phishing.
Avoid giving your email to unknown sites: Many people are careless and used to give their emails on any site. Well, there are many of such sites which used to sell your email address and because of that you can get tons of phishing mails. So if you still want to share your email to unknown sites then make separate email for it give that one to all sites. And never respond to any kind of unknown email on it.
Never click link from suspicious mail: If you get any suspicious mail on your email id asking about your personal detail by giving few links. Then never click on such links. Such links can directly take you to fake website created by hackers and which are made for getting your personal detail. So even you get email from the site you have joined never go to site from the link given in your email as it can be fake mail and fake site link, instead of that you can directly write its URL and check out the site.
Never give any kind of personal detail: As I mentioned above no need to give any personal detail without confirmation. Even that mail is come from your bank or site you have joined. Because some mails can be fake and lead you for the phishing attempt. So be careful on this thing and avoid giving any kind of personal information to such mails.
Giving credit card detail: Many people love to go for online shopping or other online transaction. But let me tell you giving credit card information online is very risky. So if you are not sure enough that the website is secure and safe for transaction never give any kind of credit card information to such sites. Otherwise you can surely lose lots of money from your credit card. And in the end you have to pay all those money to bank which you never spend. So be careful and investigate about site before doing any kind of transaction.
No need to open unknown email: This is the best way to avoid phishing or any kind online fraud activity. Just ignore all those unknown email you get on your email address. No need to open them at all, just select them and send them to trash with big smile. No need to give any kind of attention to unknown emails as most of them are fake emails and for advertising.
Keep your antivirus up to date: You can go for better antivirus. These days many antiviruses provide options for avoiding phishing attempts. Such antivirus is having all details about those emails addresses which used to send such phishing emails, so it will warn about any suspicious email when you are opening it. Like this way you can easily make your safe from any kind of fraud activity. So make sure your antivirus is up to date and having the facility of checking phishing emails.
Make sure firewall is on: Firewall is specially made for avoiding such kind of fraud activity. So make sure that it is not off on your computer system. Just keep it on and it will keep you safe from many phishing attempts. You can go for some special firewall to have more protection regarding this thing. But for that you may have to spend some money behind it. But it can give you good security.
So this is it. Follow all the above information and you will able to identify most of those phishing emails. So you can easily avoid such mails and be safe from such fraud activity. Don’t forget that hackers are becoming smarter and smarter these days so you have to be smarter too to avoid any kind of phishing attempt. So keep your guard on and be safe.
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