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Phishing

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Forensically Speaking

Phishing is essentially an online con game and phishers are nothing more than tech-savvy con artists and identify thieves. They use spam, malicious Web sites, email messages, and instant messages to trick people into divulging sensitive information, such as bank and credit card accounts.

Getting a Positive I.D. on the Perp

• Phishers, pretending to be legitimate companies, may use email to request personal information and direct recipients to respond through malicious Web sites
• Phishers tend to use emotional language, scare tactics, or urgent requests to entice recipients to respond
• The phishing sites can look remarkably like legitimate sites because they tend to use the copyrighted images from legitimate sites
• Requests for confidential information via email or IM tend to not be legitimate
• Fraudulent messages are often not personalized and may share similar properties like details in the header and footer

Protect Yourself: Don’t Be a Hero; Call for Backup

If a legitimate Web page has been misidentified as a known or suspicious phishing site, please report this misidentified page to the Symantec Security Response team using our online form.

Demand to see some identification. A Norton Authenticated Web page has been verified by Symantec as belonging to the company represented. Use the Norton Authenticated Request Form for legitimate Web sites you want to be evaluated as Norton Authenticated.