Phishing has become a big problem. Not the kind of activity that goes on at a lake, but the kind that goes on in cyber space.
Every day it seems we get warnings about not becoming a victim of the tool hackers use to fish for passwords and other secret and valuable information that can put you at risk for identity theft and your financial safety.
The results of becoming a victim of a phishing scam can range from irritating to costly.
Just ask someone from a business or an organization that have recently been hit by a phishing scam that hackers have use to steal employees’ W-2 forms which are all over the place right now, because it’s tax time.
There’s one recent report of a company in San Diego duped by a phishing scam into giving hackers access to copies of W-2’s of hundreds of employees.
The IRS has put out warnings, but experts who study how hackers do their thing say everyone needs to be extra careful these days to avoid becoming a victim of this form of cyber theft.
It’s more important than ever to make sure that employers, employees and all of us are on our guard against any email we may get from someone that looks legit, but is far from it.
The experts say staying ahead of hackers is hard because as anti-hacking software gets better, the hackers get better at busting through it.
The best way to stop them is to follow the same advice we’re given when it comes to terrorists about seeing something and saying something, Except that if you see something suspicious in your in-box, don’t just say something, but be sure not to click on it.’
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