Phishing is a type of fraud where bad person try to acquire your sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity such as your bank, your social network, etc. You can find more formal definition and technical information regarding phishing on wikipedia.
Test how safe you are from phishing attack…
More about phishing is posted below, but first take “fighting phishing” test by paypal. Its free and you don’t need any paypal account to take the that test.
It just asks you 5 simple question and if you can answer all of them right then you don’t need to read further! Although most questions uses paypal in its name, they are equally true with all major social networks, banks and other portals. So go for test without any hesitation!
Phishing Examples…
Now hopefully you are done with test, let me give you 2 simple examples of phishing via email…
- You get an email from your favorite social network with from email id like [email protected], saying we are deleting inactive users as part of our annual maintenance program. In case you want to retain you account, please verify your account by visiting http://www.facebook.com/verify
- You get an email from your bank with from email id [email protected], alerting you about an attempt to hack your account. As money is involved, you get panic! On next line, they say something like verify your account, blah blah! Again they give a link like http://www.icicibank.com/verify.
In both cases, from email address and target of links are forged! You can click on above facebook or icici links and see where it takes you! 😉
I posted 5 tips sometime ago where you can save yourself from such fake email ids as well as misleading links. Also read tips posted by Deepak while covering a recent phishing scam on Orkut.
By the way, do let us know your score and any doubts you have against this rapidly growing scam on internet! Just for info, I scored 5/5! 😛
Links: Phishing Test | What is Phishing?
Related: 5 Simple Rules To Fight Against Phishing
(image credit: hoax-slayer)
9 Comments
I scored 6/5 in the paypal phishing test 😉
somehow.. i got 5/5 [:P]
just now, when I finished the test and got 5/5, I felt like taking a snap and uploading it here.. [;)] i feel the requirement of same when I have a query regarding something which I have to explain it here, and could have been self-explanatory by just uploading a snap-shot here.
r u people planning to let users upload pics here ? not a bad idea.. [;)]
Check out http://www.phishtank.com
Similar to digg to find out phishing sites….
I got 4/5 — dangit. Guess I’m more at risk for identity theft, then.
I know it doesn’t necessarily apply to email but isn’t extended validation ssl usually the best way to tell if a site claiming to be paypal is legit or not? I like how paypal’s url bar is green even with their little educational novelties like this — I usually know that if I’m on a site with only standard encryption and it’s asking for my password, I shouldn’t give it any information. That would also help in situations like the facebook example you give above. I don’t even know why phishers persist nowadays, it can’t be reaping many benefits.
@Deepak
How can u score 6 out of 5! 😛
@Shalin
Nice idea bro. I really wonder how I missed a good idea like this myself. 🙂
@Sriganesh
Nice site man. Will really spend time on it.
@Chinacki
Phishers persists because their techniques work most of the time!
As social networks are growing rapidly many not-so-techie users are using Internet. These people are really easy to target! 🙁
5 for 5. Pretty good for an old lady !
@Ripi
Congratulations!! 🙂
I will be careful…