How to spot a phishing email
Shown below, is a recent phishing email purporting to be from Halifax building society.Everything about this communication and the website it links to, seems real. Remember though, a bank will never ask you to update any personal details or information online.
Read on to find out how you can spot a phishing attempt. You can also see how Norton 360 spotted a phishing attack and helped block it. If you've no intention of having your bank account details stolen, why should you not consider state-of-the-art security?
The email
An email, body shown above, arrives in your inbox purporting to be from the Halifax building society. As your account is about to expire (online bank accounts don't expire), you need to click on the link to continue using the service.
The website
The screenshot above, mirrors the exact look and feel of the real Halifax website. You're lead to believe that nothing is amiss here, so time to login, handing over your username, password and and one of your security questions to the scammers.
The URL
http://www.halifax.co.uk looks real doesn't it. The main thing that gives it away is that there's a missing 's' on the http. This site therefore isn't secure as all banks will use the https prefix, showing that the website is safe to use when entering personal details. You should also note the address has a lot more characters after the halifax.co.uk and before the first /. So this page isn't halifax.co.uk at all; in fact it is hosted at formsloginasp.net.More details
After successfully sending your login details to the scammers, this phishing website now attempts to gather everything else it'll require to ensure they can access your bank account with ease.
All done
They now have full access to your bank account with the details you've supplied through the phishing website.The real website
You are now returned to the real Halifax website, unaware that all of your login details, including your username, password and security check answers are in the hands of the scammers.
Secure
The real Halifax website is secure as shown in the address above. Notice that the URL starts with https. Norton 360 stopped the phishing attempt in its tracks. See how below.
The Answer
The most careful people can get caught out by Internet scammers.In addition to using common sense and the information supplied on these pages, Tiscali recommend Norton 360.
With Norton 360 on your PC, you'll never have to worry about getting caught out again.
As the screenshot above shows, Norton 360 caught this phishing website as soon as we attempted to open the link in the email. We know it works.
