Report Phishing scam
Phishing is the act of criminally acquiring sensitive and confidential electronic information, usually of financial nature like bank account password information and/or credit card secret code information. Phishing scams are usually undertaken through emails or messages sent through the internet by a group of scamsters, often acting as representatives of the bank or card issuing organization. Users are caught in their trap if they respond to such emails or share and/or disclose confidential financial data.
Reporting of phishing scams is a detailed and well documented process in most countries of the world. Let us understand by what is meant by reporting of such scams.
Notify Banks or Credit Card issuing companies – The first step of reporting a phishing scam is to immediately bring to the notice of banks or credit card issuing companies, about the existence of any suspected mailer. Customers can either walk up to the nearest branch office or where there are phone banking services available, notify the authorities about suspected phishing related mails. Immediately upon receipt of any such complaint, the bank authorities could engage their dedicated anti-fraud sections or issue general notifications towards all its existing customers, not to respond to any suspicious communications over the internet.
Notify Police and/or Economic Offenses group – Most countries of the world today have a special cell within the police department meant for handling economic offenses and/or cyber crimes. Reporting phishing scams to these authorities therefore becomes mandatory, once a person gets to suspect or happens to receive any fraudulent communication asking for confidential financial information through the internet.
Notify the Internet Service Provider – Next in sequence would be reporting to the Internet service provider. Any phishing scam would initially originate from a particular computer and if notification to the service provider is given immediately, means of tracking down the culprit becomes easy and less time consuming. Internet Service Provider has a crucial role to play once phishing scams have been reported as the concerned police department or legal authorities would need to fall back on them for tracking and identifying the source computer. Usually this is done by way of Internet Protocol Address (IP) tracking.
Reporting phishing scam should be considered to be critical by the citizens in same way as reporting of an act of terrorism or act of legally punishable criminal action. Although the above mentioned methods are the major reporting types, an individual can report phishing scams in means other than above as well.
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