DISCLAIMER: This article is by no means a complete guide to phishing, and Komwatch takes no responsibility for errors or omissions, and also takes no responsibility should you fall prey to phishing after having followed the suggestions below. This article merely tries to make the reader aware of phishing, and gives some of the more common ways phishing occurs with some examples.

In the last week or so we have been forwarded 2 separate phishing emails attempting to gain access to internet banking account details of the account holder. These phishing emails occur from time to time, and we felt that the topic of phishing is one we should write an article about to educate our members. 

(There are more links to phishing articles and further examples at the bottom of the page )

Wikipedia defines phishing as follows:  

In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites (YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Windows Live Messenger), auction sites (eBay), online banks (Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Chase), online payment processors (PayPal), or IT Administrators (Yahoo, ISPs, corporate) are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail or instant messaging,[1] and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one. 

Depending on the skill of the phisher it can be easy or difficult to determine if a website is fake or not, but here are some (not exhaustive) tips. (i.e. even if all these tps check out the website you are visiting could still possible be fake, but these are a good set of rules to follow which should cover all but the mose advanced phisher) 

Read more: Banking Phishing