What is "phishing" can be guessed by remembering the meaning of the English word "fish" (fish). Thus, phishing is a kind of fishing, but the user is a tasty fish in it, or rather his personal data, which opens access to money.
It is, of course, very convenient to be able to manage your money and shop online. At the same time, there is no need to go anywhere, to adapt to the mode of operation of firms and organizations. But at the same time, one must remember that there is a constant hunt for logins and passwords of ordinary users on the Internet. One way to let scammers find out sensitive data is to enter it on a fake (phishing) site.
How can you protect yourself from phishing?
The main thing in this matter is the user's attentiveness. No, even the best, antivirus will protect you if you yourself enter your username and password on a suspicious site. Thus, if you want to go to your personal account at the bank or pay for a purchase in an online store, check the link that you used to visit the site. Remember that even if someone you 100% trust sent the link to you, they could also be tricked or even hacked.
most likely, the letters in the fake link will be messed up or rearranged in some way. An example of a correct address: yandex.ru. An example of "fixing" an address for a phishing site: yandax.ru.
Please note that you may receive a letter with such an incorrect link even from a reputable organization (tax, bank, provider, etc.). You should not follow the links and from such letters, because today scammers fake them very reliably.
So what should you do?
- The easiest and safest way is to enter the address of the desired site yourself by opening a new tab (or window) of the browser.
- Do not use your billing information if you are connected to a free Wi-Fi network at a coffee shop or similar location.
- Check for the presence of the https prefix in the site address.
- Install antivirus and follow its recommendations.
