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Help! I’ve fallen for a phishing scam!

Get the basics on phishing: Part 2

Phishing—an attempt to fraudulently gain access to your personal information—is a huge problem. And even the smartest among us might be fooled at times.

 

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If you think you're the victim of phishing, follow these simple steps:

Report the incident

Immediately report the incident to the following organizations:

·          Contact your credit card company if you have given out your credit card information. Reporting that your account may be compromised and closing the account should be your first step. The sooner a credit card issuer knows, the easier it will be for them to help protect you.

·          Send the entire fraudulent message to the company that's been misrepresented. Remember to contact the organization directly, not through the e-mail message you received. Find out if they have a special e-mail address to report such abuse.

 

You can also report the phishing scam to the Anti-Phishing Working Group at reportphishing@antiphishing.org and to the FTC at spam@uce.gov.

 

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What does it mean?

firewall
A security solution which segregates one portion of a network from another, allowing only authorized network traffic to pass through.

phisher
A malicious user or Web site that deceives people into revealing personal information, such as account passwords and credit card numbers.

strong password
A password that provides an effective defense against unauthorized access to a resource.

To report the scam to these groups, create a new e-mail message addressed to them and attach the phishing e-mail to the new message. You can also copy the entire phishing e-mail and paste it in the new message. Do not use the "forward" option if possible, as this format may keep identifying information from going through and requires more manual processing.

Change the passwords on all your accounts

If you think you've responded to a phishing scam with password information, or entered passwords into a phony Web site, immediately change your passwords. Use a strong password that has the following characteristics:

·          It’s at least eight characters long.

·          It includes letters, numbers, and symbols.

·          It’s easy for you to remember but hard for others to guess.

Avoid names and words in any dictionary, as well as pet names, important dates, and so on. Protect your passwords and change them regularly.

 

Related topics

To learn more about phishing, read other topics in this series, including:

·          What is phishing?

·          How do I protect myself from phishing scams?