Tips of How to Prevent Your Gmail from Being Hacked by Phishers

Nowadays it is very common to hear about online security vulnerability with email and domains being stolen by unauthorized third parties. As a frequent internet surfer, how are you going to ensure your Gmail is safe from being attacked by phishers and prevent your private information from being stolen by third parties?

You never know or suspect the email is actually sent by phisher as the web page looks like a legitimate site you have visited before. Phishers can imitate as banks, email, online merchants, payment services providers and even governments that you may be confused with what they have claimed and follow the instructions to enter your username, password and other private information on the site. All these information can be used by phishers to steal your bank money, open new credit card applications under your name and etc. In order to prevent or minimize such incident from happening, there are few tips you can apply to prevent phishers’ attacks:

• Examine if there are any suspicious filters which are not created by you
Access to your Gmail account, go to Setting -> Filters, then verify if there are any filters which are not created by you. Delete them right away if there is any.

• Disable Forwarding and POP/IMAP
Access to your Gmail account, go to Setting -> Forwarding and POP/IMAP, disable forwarding, POP and IMAP if you have not used them.

• Be alert when being asked for sensitive information.
Any email or link in the email asking about your user name, password, bank account number or other personal information need to be cautious before submitting those information. Bear in mind that most of the legitimate websites never ask for sensitive information through this channel.

• Do not click on suspicious links in email
If you receive an email asking for private information from a organization which you know of, instead of clicking on the link directly from the email, go to the organization website directly by typing the address in URL. If there is something you need to do, usually there will be an announcement on the homepage. If you can’t find any information from the homepage, don’t hesitate to call the respective party to find out more.

• Use a browser that has a phishing filter
Use the the latest versions of browsers such as Firefox 3.x, Internet Explorer 7, and Opera 9.x which have included phishing filters for safer web browsing experience without being interrupted by these kind of phishing activities.

• Do not be deceived by “great offers” or fantastic advertisement
Whenever you have received any online offers and requires you to enter private information, don’t be too excited and make sure that it is really safe or try to find more information.

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This entry was posted on Friday, December 12th, 2008 at 8:38 pm and is filed under Tips & Tricks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.