Phishing websites
A phishing website is a website which is especially designed to steal private information though it appears similar to an authorized site. These are also known as fake sites.
A number of wicked persons make use of phishing sites by set them as believable spoof of legal Web sites. They then try to trap you when you visit into these Web sites and reveal your private information, such your credit card number, PAN number etc.
Luckily, there are a number of steps you can take help to protect yourself from these and other types of assaults.
Spoofing attacks are regularly used in combination of the phishing scams. The spoofed site is generally designed to appear like the legal site, even components from the legal site are used in the spoofed site. Check the certificate to confirm whether you are at the spoofed site or not.
The text in the address bar may be wrong that gives you illusion that you are at the legal site. So do not rely on the text in the address bar. There are more than a few ways to get the something other than the site you are on in the address bar.
Submit your private information only after verifying the security certificate issued to a site. Before you submit some private information, make sure that you are definitely on the Web site you mean to be on.
You can do this by examining the yellow lock icon on the status bar in the Internet Explorer. This symbol indicates that the Web site uses encryption to protect any sensitive private information like credit card number, Social Security number and payment details. The lock only becomes visible on sites which uses an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) connection, which is usually used only on sites where you type sensitive information.
The site employs encryption, if the lock is closed. To show the security certificate for the site, you have to double click on the lock icon. This certificate is verified for the uniqueness of the site.
When you verify the certificate, the name issued should match the site you think you are on. If this name differs, you must be on a spoofed site. If you are not sure whether a certificate is legal, do not enter any private information. Just depart the Web site.
When new subscribers sign up for MSN services, they can compare the issued domain name (msn.com) to the Web site domain name (also msn.com).
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