How to Prevent Phishing Attacks in 8 ways

The declining state that the global economy has taken in the last few years has paved the way for increasing numbers of phishing attacks. As early as 2007, the Anti-Phishing Workgroup has recorded a sharp 67.4% increase in such attacks in a year's time.

It was observed that the spike in the number of phishing attacks often occur when there is a major development in the financial sector, such as banking acquisitions or downward movements in the stock market. It seems that cybercriminals are more than happy to take advantage of news that is potentially unsettling or upsetting to people who have stakes in the financial arena.

Cybercriminals are very clever, but the fact that they often use unsolicited email as a big part of their modus operandi remains unchanged. You will never be able to stop phishing emails from coming to you, but you can at least prevent these malicious emails from harming you. Here are eight ways that you can avoid falling into the trap of a phishing attack.

1. Scan your computer regularly. Have security software - anti-virus, malware scanners, firewalls and the like - installed in your computer and make sure that you use it to scan your computer regularly and frequently. Also, you should always invest in a good, professional-quality security suite to protect your computer.

2. Ignore unsolicited requests for personal information. Most phishing emails will pretend to give you a great deal about something and then ask for your personal information with great urgency. You should be aware that banks and any trustworthy business or organization will not ask you for your personal information.

3. Never give away your username or password to any account. When you are asked via email for your username or password to any of your accounts, do not give it. No legitimate organization will ask for it unless you are setting up your account for the first time.

4. Do not click on links carelessly. When you receive an email that claims to have come from a reputable organization or business entity and it includes a link, you should verify first if the email did come from the said source. Otherwise, your computer stands at risk of a phishing attack through a Trojan horse or any similar virus. What these links do, when you click on them, is to download malware that will harm your computer and steal whatever information you have stored in it.

5. Do not download executable email attachments. A lot of phishing emails contain attachments that end with ".exe," ".com" and ".scr" file extensions. It is most likely that these attachments are viruses or malware and you should never open them.

6. Do not respond to email not addressed to you. If the email is impersonal and seems like it was sent to a mass-number of recipients, do not respond to it and delete it immediately. Phishing emails are always general in nature and are sent out to millions of recipients at the same time.

7. Verify phone numbers before calling them. If you receive an email offering you a product or service and it asks you to call a certain phone number, verify the phone number first with a reputable agency. In this way, you can avoid getting trapped in a scam.

8. Report any suspicious activity. If you find that one of the businesses or organizations you are subscribed to online is being spoofed for the purpose of possible phishing attacks, contact the business or organization immediately. The sooner such activities are reported, the sooner the organization concerned will be able to act upon it.

As we have mentioned above, cybercriminals are very clever people. You may not be able to prevent phishing attacks from coming your way, but you can at least stop them from making you their victim.