We previously talked about pretexting, which is a method of stealing your identity via the telephone. Today we want to talk about phishing, which is similar to pretexting, but it is an online form of identity theft and fraud.

So the online version of pretexting is called phishing. Phishing is generally performed via email. You will receive a very official looking email from a bank or other online company that has something to do with your finances. A very common phishing attempt is performed while impersonating PayPal or eBay.

A lot of the time, the phishing email will be impersonating a bank or other financial institution that you have no connection with, so it will be very obvious that it is a phishing attempt. Other attempts to steal your identity will be via impersonating financial institutions that you do have a business relationship with.

The email will have a link you are supposed to click on. This link will take you to a website that looks exactly like the real financial institutions website, but it will be a fake, only there to perform credit identity theft. The fake website will ask for your password and login information. Once they have this, they will log into the real website and drain your account dry.

If you receive any email which claims to be from a financial institution that you do business with, never click on any links within that email. Instead, go directly to the website and login like you normally would. Then go to the messaging center of the website to see if they indeed did send you an email.

If they sent you an email, then you can do whatever it is asking of you from within the website that you just logged into. If there is no sign of any email being sent to you, then you must assume that the email you received is a phishing attempt and is out to commit identity theft.

Always be wary of any financial institution email you receive in your inbox. Always assume it is an email that is trying to commit ID theft. Always double check to make sure the email is legitimate. It is your identity that you will be saving, so look into using ID theft solutions to protect your identity.