Text Phishing
You've received an interesting text message, but you can't figure out who it's from. It could be your friend from work, texting from her work computer. Or, it could be someone phishing. (According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, phishing is "a scam by which an e-mail user is duped into revealing personal or confidential information which the scammer can use illicitly." This is done on other forms of electronic communication, as well.) If they are phishing and you reply to the message, you are instantly added to a phone list. Next thing you know, you are receiving phone solicitations on your cell phone!
Solution: don't reply to a text message unless you can clearly tell who sent it. It's better to risk delaying a response to your friend than to end up on a thousand phone lists.
Trojan Horse
No, this is not the latest mission in Frontierville. It is the next danger you will encounter, this time on Facebook (or in your email). You log on to Facebook and see an interesting message from one of your contacts. It has an eye-catching title like: Why Did this Man Eat a Gorilla Baby at the Zoo? It could be something outrageous or referencing a recent news item, such as the one that went around promising to show gruesome photos of Bin Laden's death.
You are about to pass-up this opportunity to see something exclusive when you realize that several of your friends have the same link. Don't click on it!
These links usually contain viruses that will get onto your computer and cause a nuisance, if not out-and-out damage. They typically send you to a page that instructs you to download a file or to click a series of keys on your computer in order to see the desired photo or video. This is a major clue that you are dealing with a virus. But the story doesn't end there. It will then post the same message to your friends-from you!-enticing them to join you on this odyssey.
Solution: don't click on these. If you can't tell which links are legitimate and which contain viruses, then go to a search engine (such as Google) and look up the subject in question. And remember that you should not need to download anything or click any series of keys on your computer in order to view it.
Account Hijacking
Let's say you have an account for a cool online game (example: World or Warcraft, Rift, etc) and you log-in one day only to find all of your items gone and your guild (online players you are in a group with) mad at you. Apparently, someone logged-in to your account and sold everything in your inventory. They, then, proceeded to make withdraws from the guild bank and sell those items as well. You've just had your account hi-jacked.
As stressful as this situation is, imagine if this were not a game but your bank account or a credit card account. Now, you're dealing with monetary theft and, possibly, identity theft.
Solution: use better passwords. This may sound like it is too simple to be the answer, but it is. The more types of characters you put in your password and the longer it is, the less likely you are to be a victim of account hijacking.
Try using a mix of letters (both capitalized and lower-case), numbers and symbols. If you must use an easily-remembered phrase, misspell it and replace some of the letters with numbers and symbols. To check the effectiveness of this password, test it in a password strength checker.
The electronic world is a great place. We are able to do so many things that were not possible even 20 years ago. If we take simple steps to protect our information, we can continue to enjoy the benefits of this electronic age without fear.
Sources
- The Password Meter [Online application]. Retrieved May 30, 2011
- Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved May 30, 2011
- Wong, Lonnie (2011, May 5). Osama bin Ladin Scams Infiltrating Web. The Orlando Sentinel [Online], Retrieved May 30, 2011
Andrea Feeser - Andrea Feeser is a freelance writer, editor and poet. Andrea resides in eastern Pennsylvania with her husband and three teenage ...
Join the Conversation