While the Internet has greatly broadened the ability of people to communicate and do business in an almost instantaneous fashion, it has also opened the door to opportunities for very sophisticated fraud.
One of the most dangerous of these for individuals is the so-called phishing scam. Many have innocently fallen victim to this fraud, which involves emails that look like they come from businesses such as banks and retailers and ask for private information that can be used for identity theft or to steal credit card information.
Often they will have a link that supposedly takes you to a business website, but it is a fake copy of the legitimate website. It looks real, so people trust it and give up information they would otherwise not reveal.
Fortunately, technology may now help provide a solution to phishing.
Fifteen major technology and financial companies have joined to develop a system that detects email coming from fake websites and then segregates the email before it goes out to unsuspecting recipients.
The new system benefits not only consumers but also the legitimate businesses that are victimized by the phishing schemes.
Unfortunately, scammers are also technologically adept and will keep looking for ways around safeguards.
It is important that technology companies and businesses that benefit from the Internet keep ahead of fraudsters so consumers have confidence in their online transactions and communications. In fact, that needs to be one of their highest priorities.
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Article Source: http://www.yumasun.com/opinion/phishing-76478-technology-information.html