Phishing - what is it?

[Freedom]

I 've used various virus protection over the years.

McAfee - didn't help me much, I kept getting into trouble!

Norton - used that for 3 or 4 years, then bought Norton 360 by mistake. It took up so much memory my computers slowed WAY down.

Just loaded Windows Live One Care today . . . and discovered that the anti phishing ONLY works on Internet Explorer 7.0

I use Firefox

Am I in trouble? What IS phishing? Do I really want to know? Any way around this now that I bought and installed the Live One Care on BOTH computers???

Thanks for comments, help, ideas.

[blue]

Firefox 3 has built in anti phishing.

[Freedom]

Firefox 3 has built in anti phishing.

Whew! Safe.

That stuff sounds nasty; well, I KNEW it was. Glad to know I am "covered!"

Thanks everyone.

[Medusa]

I was phished last year. A site claiming to be one of my credit card companies said that they needed me to update my account. The logo and everything was identical to the cc acct. I almost fell for it until questions such as "What is the account number where you finance your car?" and "What is your debit card account number?" etc. appeared. No way my cc company needed that info. I didn't know if this was taking place in real time or not so I immediately clicked out and went to my bank, let them know what happened and I closed the account. It could've been disastrous.

[smokey the elder]

YOU are your own best defense against a phishing scheme. If someone sends an email asking for stuff like that, it's best to contact the REAL bank, creditor, etc. and let them know. This kind of thing adversely affects their business, as well, and they like to know aboutit.

[Cataholic]

YOU are your own best defense against a phishing scheme. If someone sends an email asking for stuff like that, it's best to contact the REAL bank, creditor, etc. and let them know. This kind of thing adversely affects their business, as well, and they like to know aboutit.

I am amazed that people still fall for this stuff. You can count on one news article a week, or comment on the TV about people giving out all their personal information because of an email request! ACK!

[Karen]

Phishing is when software or programs or people "phish" for email addresses they can then sell to spammers as legitimate addresses. Nothing you want to be a part of!

[Hellow]

From Wikipedia (I couldnt explain it better):
"In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT Administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail or instant messaging,^[1] and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one. Even when using server authentication, it may require tremendous skill to detect that the website is fake. Phishing is an example of social engineering techniques used to fool users,^[2] and exploits the poor usability of current web security technologies.^[3] Attempts to deal with the growing number of reported phishing incidents include legislation, user training, public awareness, and technical security measures."