Slip the phishing nets

BE on the look out for scam emails trying to get you to enter details about online accounts you may have – often known as phishing.

That is the warning from the Anti-Phishing Working Group who report that the average monthly growth rate in phishing sites between July 2004 and February 2005 was 26%.

I’ve receive a number of emails recently, most common are those claiming to be from US-based financial institutions, eBay or PayPal.

These phishing emails use graphics and logos from reputable online companies and claim that your account has been closed or details need verifying.

In the past they were often poorly written with terrible grammar, but now they are very sophisticated and not as easy to make out that they are fake.

The Anti-Phishing Working Group recommend that you should never click on links in an email to get to any web page if you suspect the message might not be authentic.

Instead, call the company on the telephone, or log onto the website directly by typing in the web address in your browser.

If you are making an online purchase or accessing a financial account ensure that you're using a secure website.

Check the beginning of the Web address in your browser’s address bar - it should be "https://" rather than just "http://"

And you can do your bit to stop the scammers by sending suspicious emails to the Anti-Phishing Working Group website.