Video:How to Identify a Phishing Scam

Transcript:How to Identify a Phishing Scam

Hi, I'm Don Schechter for About.com Computing. Today I'll teach you how to identify a phishing scam.

What is a Phishing Scam?

A phishing scam is a scam where the scammer sends an email purporting to be from a valid financial or e-commerce provider, such as eBay.

The email often entices the intended victim to visit a fraudulent Web site and enter sensitive financial and identification information.

Check the HTML Link

There are several tips to avoid a phishing scam. Scammers use HTML, a programming language, in emails. It links emails to a scamming Web site instead of the Web site that it claims to be.

If you have a suspicious email that is asking you to send information by clicking on the link, hover your mouse over the link.

Each HTML link has two components to its tag, the real link, called the target, and the displayed text. In a phishing scam, the display text is different from the actual Web site that it's linked to. It leads you to another page, which can be misleading, but is a clever trick for scammers.

Look at the Target

Avoid being misled. Hover your mouse over the link again, and take a look at the bottom left corner of your browser window.

If you see nothing, go to 'View' on the Toolbar and click 'Status Bar.' You should see the actual target, or where the link takes you, displayed there.

Refer to the Page Source

While this tip will be helpful, the most seasoned scammers will still find ways to elude being caught.

If you want to make sure that links in your email are not false, go to your email, right click, and select either 'Page Source' or 'Properties.' This will take you to the HTML version of your email, and you can check links there.

Thanks for watching. To learn more, visit us online at computing.about.com.