What is Phishing? In a typical Phishing attack, a criminal will send you an email which appears to be from a well known company, bank or government agency. The email will direct you to click on a link which directs you to a Website or pop-up box that looks like the companys or organizations legitimate site. The site will instruct you to enter personal information, such as your account ID, your password, your credit or debit card number and PIN, or your social security number. The criminals are phishing for information.

Tips for Spotting a Phishing Scam:

A fraudulent email will usually have a sense of urgency, stating that you must respond immediately or your account will be closed or frozen. Also, fraudulent emails and websites will often have obvious spelling errors.

Fraudulent emails will contain links to websites that appear to have an address similar to a Bank or its website name. Remember, it is always safer to type in the website address yourself than to click on a link.

It can be very difficult to determine the true identity of a website based upon its address. Cyber-criminals may use programming tricks to make the address that you see appear different than the true address to which you are directed.

Your greatest protection against online fraud is not to fall victim by taking reasonable steps to protect your private information. Visit the Federal Trade Commissions website at www.FTC.gov/idtheft for more information about online security and how to protect yourself from scams.

1. First and foremost, never provide personal information in response to an unsolicited email.

"ThreatconYellow.com (http://www.threatconyellow.com) will never send you an email in which we ask you to reveal your password or any other private information."

2. Never click on links in unsolicited emails.

If you receive an unsolicited email that appears to be from your bank, go directly to one of your banks websites by typing in the whole Internet address. If a legitimate alert were issued, you should be able to find that information on the website.

If you think that you may have revealed information to someone not legitimately connected your Bank:

1. Contact your Bank immediately!

2. If possible, forward the fraudulent email to the Bank without changing the subject line, and then delete it from your inbox.

When banking online, change your password frequently At least every 90 days, but you may change it more frequently if you are concerned that your account information might have been compromised.

(http://www.threatconyellow.com/phishing.htm)

Join the War on Crime: Get updated "Amber Alerts" at ThreatconYellow.com.