Phishing
Con artists used to be people you only had to look out for on the street. Now, they can show up in your e-mail inbox. Fraudulent e-mails, also known as phising emails, posing as web sites you use, such as your bank or credit card company request your pin or social security number.
Because these scam artists have become so sophisticated, they are able to build websites that look almost like exact duplicates of official sites you use. The email that comes to you may look so official with logos and other information, you never think twice. Then...bam! These con artists can now also be called Identity Thieves.
They tricked you into logging in, where they are able to record your
password by something called 'key-logging'. Now, they are able to log
into your bank account or whatever site it was copying and drain your
account. Currently, phishing scams involve many Paypal accounts.
Phishing used to be done by pop-up windows too. However, now scam artists have become so good at phishing for personal information, that they place links in emails that make it look as though it is your bank's legitimate web site. If you click on the link, the website is what is now called a 'spoofed' site - which is another way of calling it a phony scam or copycat website. Sometimes this also happens with a pop-up window instead.
If you think you unwittingly entered your personal information into any of these 'spoofed' websites recently, you should check your credit report and consider getting a monitoring service immediately.
