What is phishing and how to avoid it

Published in

Bancryp International

2 min readFeb 19, 2019

There are many forms of Internet fraud and scams through which hackers exploit and deceive people. Learn what phishing is and how to stay safe!

What is phishing

Phishing is a cybercrime through which people are manipulated to share sensitive information, passwords, credit card or bank account numbers, or personal details. Cybercriminals obtain these data through messages, e-mails or fake websites that request individuals to fill out forms with personal information.

How to recognize phishing

Phishing messages look legitimate and seem to be sent from well-known platforms like PayPal, and other companies, or government and financial institutions.

However, they are fake messages that ask for a personal information update or confirmation giving a sense of urgency as a result of some kind of problem. They then redirect you to a fake website where you are manipulated to insert sensitive information, which can result in identity, and even funds or cryptocurrency thefts.

How to stay safe

Although phishing threats can not be removed, they can be detected. In addition, there are some security measures that can help you avoid falling into phishing scams:

Never respond to links in unsolicited e-mails, in social media or suspicious websites.
Set spam filters and do not open unsolicited attachments received by e-mail or social media.
Protect your passwords and do not share them with anyone.
Do not provide confidential information to anyone — online, on the phone, in person or via e-mail.
Always check the website URL. In many cases of phishing, the e-mail address seems legitimate, but the URL contains spelling errors or the domain is different (.com when it should be .gov). Also check that there is an “https” at the beginning of the URL.
Keep up with your browser updates and always use security updates.