Walker County Messenger

What is phishing?

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lege president asking if I was free. (I do not work free for the college; I make them pay me). The link will take you to a site not associated with the claimed organizati­on, but the better ones make it look like it is real. They are wanting to get things like passwords, bank account numbers, etc., so either they can then get in certain accounts or so they can log in your bank and empty your account.

If you happen to click on one of these links cancel immediatel­y and change passwords and notify bank and police. If you provide informatio­n in one, do that stuff even quicker.

How can you tell it is false? No bank, credit card will ask you via email to give them your informatio­n. If any doubt with these, call the bank or organizati­on with phone number you know or listed on card, not the phone number in email.

Things to look for in email: Hover over the email address and see what the real address is. The email from supposedly my president gave a domain like thebestdie­t.com and our email addresses at the college use the initials of the college. edu. Second look for grammar and spelling errors although the threat actors either have finally started passing English or are hiring good proofreade­rs, so less of this. Hover over the address of the link they want you to click and see what the real address is. It probably won’t look anything like what it should be. However, be careful of one thing. Some of them put as last folder name the real address of the organizati­on and if you don’t notice more stuff at beginning it may mislead you

Lastly, think, do I really have an account with this bank? Through the phishing emails I learned there is a Bank of Dwight in Illinois. However, I have no account there so why would they need me to verify my account.

Be intelligen­t and wary as you explore the Internet. Lots of stuff that is great out there but there is also bad stuff.

Dwight Watt does computer work for businesses, individual­s and organizati­ons and teaches about computers at a college in Northwest Georgia. His website is www. dwightwatt.com His email address is dwight@ dwightwatt.com.

Send your questions about computers to my email: dwight@dwightwatt.com. I will pick a question to answer each week.

 ??  ?? Dwight Watt
Dwight Watt

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