What is phishing and how to avoid becoming a victim as a user and as an online business

Phishing is a fraud procedure used by cybercriminals, also known as identity theft. This computer abuse is identified by trying to appropriate private information of users by posing as official institutions, banks, web pages, messages or equivalents.

There are different ways by which the cybercriminal can get to your personal information. You can receive an email, chat messages or similar contacts in which you are asked in a courteous manner to renew, verify or confirm the information of an account, manifesting a problem, either in the system or in the saved data. You can also receive a false prize, discount coupons, promotions, or even job offers.

Whatever the contact method is, the procedure continues to send the user to a false web page that asks you to enter the password, bank account number or credit card data, and this is how they get the data to impersonate the identity of the victim and proceed with the fraud.

The highest number of phishing cases occur when victims connect to public WiFi networks. 74% of the victims of addline phishing (double identity theft) are tourists connected to hotel WiFi networks, according to a study by the University of New York.

How to avoid being a victim of phishing

Phishing can not be undone once committed, but it can be distinguished to avoid being a victim from the start. Let's see some tips to avoid this type of fraud:

• Do not reply to uncertain or unknown e-mails and do not open attachments not requested by you previously.
• Do not show anyone your passwords and use combinations of letters, numbers and symbols when choosing it.
• Do not provide confidential information by telephone or written messages of any kind.
• Always check the URLs you visit, especially when you access from the mobile, because the screen size is not full addresses and phishers use spelling mistakes to deceive their victims (BankIa instead of Bankia, for example).
• You can hire an antivirus and antiphishing security system to anticipate these attacks.

And remember that Google has a web form where you can report this type of fraud, whether you have accessed a fraudulent address directly, through a Google search or by email.

Online business: how to avoid phishing

If you are the owner of an online business, it can happen that some cyber criminal try to buy on your site with stolen data through phishing. To avoid these problems, it is vital that you choose a payment gateway with the necessary security requirements:

• 3D Secure: with double authentication via mobile phone, phishers will have a much harder time completing an online purchase with stolen data.
• Anti-Fraud System: creating combinations of anti-fraud rules will minimize the chances of fraudulent purchases being attempted in your online store, since you will be able to deny access to users with certain suspicious characteristics.
• Black lists: include in your blacklist users who have the risk of trying to buy with stolen data and you will be unable to carry out the fraud.

Paylands includes all these security tools that are also customizable and allow you to create a perfect anti-fraud security system for your online business. If you are interested in implementing it on your website, contact us with any questions that may arise through this form.