While the internet has brought a range of benefits to users, it has also provided ample opportunities for fraud and scams. Phishing scams are a common source of identity theft. They look like emails from legitimate, well known companies. The identity thieves create a trustworthy looking email (complete with HTML code as well as images) that have been downloaded from the website of a particular company. Most phishing scams will ask you to follow links embedded within an email. There may be phrases such as "click here to verify your account” or "click here to claim your prize". This is a scam wherein an individual is tricked into giving out personal details such as social security number or credit card information on an unsafe page fabricated by scammers.
There are ways you can stop identity theft from happening to you. Most well-known companies have detailed information about phishing on their website. The company will list the kind of information that they might ask for in their communication with customers. If you receive a suspicious email from a "well known" company, make sure to check the policies of the company before proceeding further with instructions contained in the email. The best way to avoid being scammed is to never click links contained within a specific email. Rather, visit the homepage of the site and check for any news updates that pertain to the topic of the email.
Also, if you spot any spelling or grammar errors while you are reading the mail, chances are that the email is a phishing scam. Most companies are careful about what they publish and have proofreaders go over their communication to lessen the chances of grammatical errors. The identity thieves, on the other hand, might not care so much about such errors. A quick skim of the email will let you know if it has come from a legitimate company or is a phishing scam.
While reading a suspicious email that you have received, take a close look at the links contained within the body of the email. Follow the links and take a glance at the address bar. The identity thieves typically send you to a suspicious domain that contains some reference to a legitimate company. If the word or phrase immediately after the www portion of the address and immediately preceding the TLD (ie. .com, .org, etc.) does not match the company’s web address, leave the site immediately. These steps will help you spot phishing scams easily and will offer you protection against identity theft.
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