- Phishing are DECOYS you shouldn’t fall for.
There are so many unscrupulous people these days, trying to fend for themselves by scamming others. Phishing isn’t new and it has become one of the most used tactics of scammers these days. In fact, nearly everyone has already experienced an attempt to lure them into a devastating trap.
Have you ever received SMS asking for your details, saying they’re from the bank and they need to update your user security? Or have you encountered an email, saying you are a victim of card fraud and you need to send them your details so they can retrieve what you lost? Then the messages redirect you to some website.
If yes, then this is a clear case of phishing attack.
Phishing is a cyber-attack that uses disguised email as a weapon. The goal is to trick the email recipient into believing that the message is something they want or need — a request from their bank, for instance, or a note from someone in their company — and to click a link or download an attachment.
What really distinguishes phishing is the form the message takes: the attackers masquerade as a trusted entity of some kind, often a real or plausibly real person, or a company the victim might do business with. It’s one of the oldest types of cyber-attacks, Reyes dating back to the 1990s, and it’s still one of the most widespread and pernicious, with phishing messages and techniques becoming increasingly sophisticated.
There were a lot of successful phishing attacks that happened internationally. In 2016, employees from Kansas University shared their paycheck deposit information through a fraudulent email. In the same year, hackers were able to gather Hilary Clinton’s Gmail credentials. There were worst cases where a number of sensitive photos of famous celebrities were spread online because their cloud accounts were hacked.
And now some Pinoys are learning the trick and using it against their co-Pinoys.
Many are victimized by these phishing attacks because they are not aware of it. It’s already the modern world and it is everyone’s responsibility to know what can cause them harm. Like I said, phishing has been a technique used by fraudulent people since the early 90s, so there’s no excuse if you too fell for this kind of trap.
Once you see an email or SMS asking for your sensitive information like passwords or even birthdays, middle names, your mother’s maiden name, etc., delete those messages at once before you can accidentally click on the link.
Since banks are the most used disguises in phishing attacks, BDO recently attempted to educate their clients on how they can avoid being hacked and robbed.
BDO warned their clients to always be wary of messages you receive. Never click on links because emails with phishing attempts almost look like the real thing. The templates were designed to look authentic so don’t just click and click on links. The best thing you can do to check if it is real is to call your bank to ask if they really sent you an email.
And if there are attempts like mentioned, you can report them to [email protected] so they can find ways to stop attacks to their clients. BDO has a cyber security partner to track down the source of attacks and put down the website where phishing attempts take place.
In addition to their security online, BDO uses a multi-factor authentication process whenever you need to access your account outside ATM withdrawal and OTC transactions.
They require 1) ID and password, 2) your mobile device enrolled when you opened your account, 3) biometrics like fingerprint or facial recognition.
However, they won’t be able to block phishing attackers when they already have access to your authentic credentials like username, password, mobile and other information usually used to verify user identity.
Remember, your bank will never force you, in any way, to share your personal details unless you transact with them personally at the bank. But even if you go to the bank, they will never ask for your usernames and passwords.
