There's many ways to try to get a hold on other people's personal data and money. The criminals invent constantly new and trickier ways of phishing. Some of them target a large number of people at a time, while some of them are tailored to a certain person.
You can avoid phishing by remebering these basic principles:
- The user ID's, the bank ID's, the personal data as well as any other personal information is not to be given to another person. You need these information when confirming your identity or logging in to different services, but no one else has an appropriate reason to ask you this data.
- Your operator, bank and other service providers don't ask your personal data by phone, text message or e-mail.
- The con men try to scare or upset you, because that makes you more vulnerable. That is why the phishing attempts usually include claims of danger or of a need to act immediately, or something that is unrealistically lucky. They might tell you that there's an urgent matter that needs to be taken care of right away or you will lose your bank account or your data service or something else very important. They might possible claim that by taking part to a lottery or replying an e-mail you will get a huge amount of money.
The con men might approach you by phone, e-mail, text message and the requests in the Internet.
