CYBER CRIME LAW- PHISHING IS LIKE FISHING BUT NOT THE SAME

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I am apprehensive even before this "phishing" came out about those lists or forms they make us fill up when applying for a credit card or joining a social networking site. I mumble and grumble- why on earth do they want my birthdate? Why do they want my birth place? What are they going to do with this information? This is 1984 and Orwellian, why are they doing this?

It also occurred to me that the more information you give in the internet the more that information can be used against you. If you're birthdate is say 1954 or 1950 they can call you "gurang", "tanda", "lolo" or "lola". If you're birthdate is 1990s or 2000 then you are still "Nene" and "Totoy". If you come from my school the University of the Philippines you are immediately considered intellectual- and if you're from AMA- ahem…my lips are sealed.

The point is why does this corporation or group or entity want our info? And what is frightening is "what if the information fall into the wrong hands?" Consider this- you have a credit card, and then you receive an email saying something like in order to update the system you need to update your name, your birthdate, your account and password. And you give it without thinking. Minutes later this crook enters and logs in your account and wham- he or she withdraws your money.

That is phishing. A play on the word "Fishing" that one of our illustrious members of Congress thought this had to with uh "agriculture". It's a method where the cyber crook or cyber criminal fraudulently through email or through spam could get your password, username, credit card details and then masquerade as a trustworthy entity. It pretends that its your bank, your credit card, your ISP, your social networking group, your travel agency, etcetera.

The Phishing here is the act or sending emails that frighten the customer like his account or her account is corrupted or hacked and requires the person to click a link that leads to a fake website which looks like the real thing. The person duped types his name, his password, his username, his bank account and other sensitive stuff. And the criminal must have been laughing and just enters the account. No robbery. No shootings like Dillinger. And those people around will even what call him a computer genius. A crook is now a genius.

Phishing can be harmless or irritating. One victim says that he was forwarded to a link that contained photos of his friends. Then he was surprised that it led back to a Yahoo email login page which said that he had logged out. He logged in and entered the password only to find out that he was victimized by a phishing site.

My advice? Be very careful and wary when someone or something asks your for your name, your username, your password, your details, and your bank account and passwords- somebody might sabotage you.

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