How to be safe from Phishing

One of the most common ways of hacking and retrieving user information is Phishing. It is a cybercrime in which the scammers target users through emails, text messages, fake social media posts using some brand names posing as a legitimate institute to lure the users with lucrative offers to get the personal information which may result in identity theft or financial loss.

Today almost all people in the world have access to the internet. People will have emails, social media accounts, online banking account, etc which contain their personal information, banking details, etc. The only way to access them is a password. So your password must be strong enough to protect your digital information. But only this is not enough. Scammers can use different ways to get your password and use it for their benefit. So one golden rule is never ever to give your password to anyone. Use your password only on the official website where it is used. So let's see how can scammers use phishing to get your information.

1. They will send you emails with some lucrative offers or telling you that you won a lottery.

2. Viber text message was popular at one time which tells you that you won a lottery and call this number. Later they will tell you to deposit a certain amount first to get the prize which is a total scam.

3. Nowadays many people are getting sponsored posts on Facebook with fake job offers using popular brands' names. They post a link that will redirect you to a fake page that just looks like a Facebook login page. If you enter your email and password, then the scammers will get this information. So it is very important to check if the link or URL is official.

Phishing basically includes these common things. They will give you some link to login or something posing to be the official one. If you enter your correct details there then you are screwed.

So, how to recognize them and prevent yourself from these attacks? 

First of all, if someone is luring with offers and money then don't believe it. Money is not something that comes easily. Second, always check the credibility of the sender, be it email, social account, or anything. Look for the emails of the sender. If the email looks suspicious then do not act. If someone is telling them to be a company employee then check if the sender is using company emails or other disposable email addresses. Also if the link looks suspicious and is not the correct one then ignore them.

For example, if someone gives you a link to login to Facebook but the link provided is faceboook.com or some other besides facebook.com then do not login in it since that is not the real URL of Facebook. The look of the website may be the same as Facebook and the link may seem similar but they are different. And once you login into that site, your login information on Facebook is stolen. In that case, you need to change your password immediately otherwise you may not recover your Facebook account. These things also apply to others like online banking accounts and others. 

For more details about phishing, you can read it at https://www.phishing.org/ .