Phishing is a nefarious practice where thieves attempt to steal your data using emails that appear to be from reputable senders. Once the hacker has access to your data, it leads to computer repair and, in many cases, lost finances. Unfortunately, phishing scams are also getting craftier with new, harder-to-detect efforts.

Understanding New Phishing Threats

While computer repair and security experts have evolved their efforts to fight phishing, scammers have also escalated their tactics. One common technique uses emails made up of images rather than text. While text can be scanned by spam filters, phishing emails that have an image as the bulk of the content are harder to detect. The link used to gather your data can be embedded in the image as well.

These threats are also getting more creative with their redirect links. This reduces the chance that victims know they've been phished to discourage them from alerting their bank, changing passwords, or taking other corrective measures. For example, after you’ve entered your data into the phisher’s site, the send button could redirect you back to a reputable company’s home page so you don’t realize anything is off.

How to Avoid Being Victimized

Being phished leads to many problems. To sweep for malware, you’ll need computer repair. You may also have your bank account locked, or your identity stolen. To avoid being a victim, never click links in emails from unknown senders. If the email address looks off, play it safe. 

Use virus protection that scans emails for any signs of phishing links. To make sure links disguised as images don’t slip by the scanner’s detection, right-click them and see if an options window pops up with options for an image. This lets you know the entire email is an image, and you shouldn’t click anywhere else inside it.

To help keep your email and identity safe from phishers, talk to the computer security experts at Absolute Computers in Sanford, NC. For 20 years, these professionals have offered a variety of services, including computer repair, malware removal, and IT support. Whether you use your computer for work, personal reasons, or both, let them help you keep it running smoothly. To contact them, visit their website or call (919) 777-9125.