What is Phishing

What is Phishing?

Phishing is when a person sends out an e-mail to many recipients asking for them to send them personal information such as credit card numbers, social security numbers and other financial information. In the e-mail they will claim to be representing your bank or other financial institution and either ask for you to send your information to them via e-mail or actually have a link to a "spoofed" web site that looks legitimately like that of your financial institution. The identity thief then will gather your information and keep it in a database where they can use your credit card numbers or other information to buy items on the internet or take funds from your banking account. There are ways to prevent such a thing from happening.

Steps to Prevent Phishing

Clifton Savings Bank would almost never ask for you to send personal information via e-mail or other insecure means. If you ever receive an e-email from us requesting such information please contact us and we can verify or nullify the request.
Be suspicious of any email with urgent requests for personal financial information
- unless the email is digitally signed, you can't be sure it wasn't forged or 'spoofed'
- phishers typically include upsetting or exciting (but false) statements in their emails to get people to react immediately
- they typically ask for information such as usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, social security numbers, etc.
- phisher emails are typically NOT personalized, while valid messages from your bank or e-commerce company generally are
Don't use the links in an email to get to any web page, if you suspect the message might not be authentic
- instead, call the company on the telephone, or log onto the website directly by typing in the Web address in your browser
Avoid filling out forms in email messages that ask for personal financial information
- you should only communicate information such as credit card numbers or account information via a secure website or the telephone
Always ensure that you're using a secure website when submitting credit card or other sensitive information via your Web browser
- to make sure you're on a secure Web server, check the beginning of the Web address in your browsers address bar - it should be "https://" rather than just "http://"
Consider installing a Web browser tool bar to help protect you from known phishing fraud websites
- EarthLink ScamBlocker is part of a free browser toolbar that alerts you before you visit a page that's on Earthlink's list of known fraudulent phisher Web sites.
- Its free to all Internet users - download at http://www.earthlink.net/earthlinktoolbar
Regularly log into your online accounts
- don't leave it for as long as a month before you check each account
Regularly check your bank, credit and debit card statements to ensure that all transactions are legitimate
- if anything is suspicious, contact your bank and all card issuers
Ensure that your browser is up to date and security patches applied
- in particular, people who use the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser should immediately go to the Microsoft Security home page -- http://www.microsoft.com/security/ -- to download a special patch relating to certain phishing schemes
Always report "phishing" or “spoofed” e-mails to the following groups:
- forward the email to reportphishing@antiphishing.com
- forward the email to the Federal Trade Commission at spam@uce.gov
- forward the email to the "abuse" email address at the company that is being spoofed (e.g. "spoof@ebay.com")
- when forwarding spoofed messages, always include the entire original email with its original header information intact
- notify the Internet Fraud Complaint Center of the FBI by filing a complaint on their website: www.ifccfbi.gov/

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