AVG Free Anti Virus Scan

AVG are one of the forerunners in the field of free anti virus software. Despite offering a free version of their product, they have continued to invest in technology and remain at the cutting edge of the fast moving computer security industry.

The company behind the range of AVG Anti virus products is AVG Technologies (formerly Grisoft). The name comes from the first product that they brought to the market called Antivirus Guard. The company is Czech in origin and was started back in 1991.

The free version of he software is available for home users to use on single workstations. It is extremely popular and has been downloaded more than 70 million times. An important feature of the software is its low system requirements. This means that it will efficiently carry out its detection without slowing down (or crashing) your machine.

The company no longer offers technical support for the free version of the product. For this you will need to pay the modest fee to upgrade to the professional version.

The professional version also offers some extra protection - anti spyware detection and anti-rootkit. With the increasing threat of identity fraud due to spyware, this is a feature that many people will welcome. Some malicious programs, such as keyloggers and trojans, use rootkit technology to hide in your computer. The anti-rootkit makes it possible to detect them.

For total protection AVG also offer an Internet security suite. This product includes an anti spam module and firewall. This is intended to give you complete piece of mind when on the Internet. This particular product does have higher system requirements, so it may affect your PC's performance.

AVG remain a dominant force in the computer security industry. Whether you choose their free anti virus software or upgrade to a fully featured product, you are sure to be getting a good deal.

Dirty Little Computer Viruses and How To Protect Yourself

Whether you have learned your lesson from a past experience with a nasty computer virus or have been pressing your luck by surfing the web and downloading various files or opening those email messages sent to you by people you don’t know without any real understanding of just how vulnerable you really are each time you log onto your computer you now have the opportunity to discover what steps you can take to avoid such an annoying and many times destructive infestation.

Listed below are some of the guidelines you can follow in order to keep those nasty viruses from making a mess out of your computer and your life.

•Purchase and install a well respected antivirus software program and be sure to set it up so that it automatically runs when the computer starts up each time.

•Make sure to keep your antivirus software up to date by either using the automatic update feature that many come with or make it a habit to manually check at least once or twice a week for updates on your own.

•Set your antivirus program to scan for potential viruses each time you open a word-processing document like the ones that get sent through email. Viruses found in word-processing documents are called Macro Viruses.

•When purchasing software make sure to only buy from vendors that are well known and from ones you trust.

•Resist swapping data with the use of floppy disks or other mobile storage devices between various computers. If exchanging programs between computers is unavoidable just make sure to scan the storage device(s) for viruses before transferring data from one computer to the next.

•If using floppy disks to transfer data make sure to format them before using them for the first time.

•Never use pirated software. This is both illegal and a very good way to invite an unwanted computer virus.

•When downloading software from the internet do so as little as possible. There are many neat programs available on the internet, but unfortunately there are many viruses that go along with them also.

•If you must download programs from the internet ALWAYS scan them for viruses BEFORE opening them up to install on your computer.

•Probably the most important and neglected method of disaster recovery are periodic backups of all important files found on your computer. Should a virus happen to get through your lines of defense you may need to replace the virus corrupted files with fresh ones that have been kept for such an occasion.

Finally, it is not guaranteed that if you follow the above steps that you will not be the victim of a computer virus, but you can sure bet that if followed you will greatly reduce the chance of being an unsuspecting recipient of such an unwanted program.

Nigerian Internet Fraud

If you have ever received an e-mail informing you that you have just won the lottery in a foreign country or that someone needs to transfer a large sum of money into your bank account, you have most likely been contacted by an internet scam artist. Internet scams have been on the rise every year since the internet began. This type of fraud cost Americans $198 million in 2006, and this figure is 8% larger than the total of 183 million the year before. Most of these losses are attributed to the Nigerian 419 scam. The recent popularity of this type on internet fraud has created much concern by U.S. government agencies and private organizations.

The Nigerian Letter or "419" is the most prevalent internet scam. This type of scam gets its name because it originated in Nigeria, "a West African country," and it's Section 419 of the Nigerian criminal code deals with fraud. This internet scam starts out with an e-mail from an anonymous person who needs the recipient's help transferring millions of dollars from the bank account of a deceased African leader, company official, or senior government bureaucrat. The e-mail recipient will receive a sizable percentage of cash by helping him do so. These letters then ask you for your personal information, such as your bank account number and bank letterhead.

Most people, when they receive this letter, may ask themselves, "Who would fall for such a scam," However, for some individuals, this letter is perceived as a fantastic opportunity. The promise to make a large sum of money fast can drive people to make irrational decisions concerning their private information. In 2006 these types of scams had an average $5,100 loss for victims. That is a substantial jump from 2004 when the average was $2,100 per incident.

These letters are sent out to millions of e-mail addresses every year. Even though millions of e-mails are sent, just a few responses are needed for a big return. Letters to avoid

1. Having consulted with my colleagues and based on the information gathered from the Nigerian Chambers Of Commerce And Industry, I have the privilege to request your assistance to transfer the sum of $47,500,000.00 (forty seven million, five hundred thousand United States dollars) into your accounts. The above sum resulted from an over-invoiced contract, executed, commissioned and paid for about five years (5) ago by a foreign contractor. This action was however intentional and since then the fund has been in a suspense account at The Central Bank Of Nigeria Apex Bank.

We are now ready to transfer the fund overseas and that is where you come in. It is important to inform you that as civil servants, we are forbidden to operate a foreign account; that is why we require your assistance. The total sum will be shared as follows: 70% for us, 25% for you and 5% for local and international expenses incidental to the transfer.

The transfer is risk free on both sides. I am an accountant with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). If you find this proposal acceptable, we shall require the following documents:

2. I have been requested by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company to contact you for assistance in resolving a matter. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company has recently concluded a large number of contracts for oil exploration in the sub-Sahara region. The contracts have immediately produced moneys equaling US$40,000,000. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company is desirous of oil exploration in other parts of the world, however, because of certain regulations of the Nigerian Government, it is unable to move these funds to another region.

You assistance is requested as a non-Nigerian citizen to assist the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, and also the Central Bank of Nigeria, in moving these funds out of Nigeria. If the funds can be transferred to your name, in your United States account, then you can forward the funds as directed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company. In exchange for your accommodating services, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company would agree to allow you to retain 10%, or US$4 million of this amount.

However, to be a legitimate transferee of these moneys according to Nigerian law, you must presently be a depositor of at least US$100,000 in a Nigerian bank which is regulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

If it will be possible for you to assist us, we would be most grateful. We suggest that you meet with us in person in Lagos, and that during your visit I introduce you to the representatives of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, as well as with certain officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

3. We have the pleasure to make this surprising but mutually benefiting business proposal. I am a member of the newly inaugurated committee for the privatization of the refineries of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, in Nigeria. The members of the committee are interested in the importation of goods into the country with funds presently floating in the Central Bank of Nigeria / Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) foreign payments account. I got your address through the office of the Nigerian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The federal military government of Nigeria, intends to lease the three existing petroleum refineries to private individuals and companies. This is to make the refineries more viable, resourceful and to eliminate undue wastage and fraud. This privatization is in-line with the recommendations of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a prerequisite for future financial assistance.

The refineries are heavily indebted to many companies and my committee has the mandate (task) of compiling the names of these companies and debt owed them and also recommend for payment, all contracts that have been fully executed. With our position in the committee, which comprises of my ministry, federal ministry of petroleum resources, Nigerian National Petroleum corporation (NNPC), the federal Ministry of Finance (FMF) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), we have successfully secured for ourselves, the sum of US $73,000,000 (seventy-three million United States Dollars). This sum was acquired by carefully inflating the amount of indebtedness by this amount (US $73,000,000). We need a reliable company to be included in the list of companies to be paid. This company will be paid for a contract executed in Kaduna Refinery in 1993.

I was therefore mandated in trust by members of the committee, to seek a foreign partner into whose account we could transfer the sum of US $73,000,000, hence I am writing you this letter. We have agreed to share the funds thus:

Since the scammers are usually located in Nigeria, prosecutions of individuals who commit these crimes are not likely to come to fruition. In 2006, the 419 letter accounted for 8% of all internet fraud. Statistics show that only 45% of victims report these crimes to anti-fraud agencies. Some of these crimes never get reported because the victims are either too embarrassed or they have been threatened with violence. The majority of victims tend to be male (61%) and are an, average 30 to 40 years old. The top three states from which most complaints come are California, Texas, and Florida.

The best ways to avoid being caught in one of these types of internet frauds are prevention and knowledge. The FBI provides information about how not to become a victim of a Nigerian internet fraud.

o If you receive a letter from Nigeria asking you to send personal or banking information, do not reply in any manner. Send the letter to the U.S. Secret Service or the FBI. o If you know someone who is participating in one of these schemes, encourage that person to contact the FBI or the U.S. Secret Service as soon as possible. o Be skeptical of individuals representing themselves as Nigerian or foreign government officials asking for your help in placing large sums of money in overseas bank accounts. o Do not believe the promise of large sums of money for your cooperation. o Guard your account information carefully.

The U.S. and Nigerian authorities have been cracking down on the perpetrators of the 419 scam.

The U.S. has been pressuring Nigerian authorities to implement new procedures to find and apprehend these internet fraudsters. In 2005 Nigeria created the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). It is designed as a way to target not just the scammer, but the ring around the scammer. This includes banks, owners of cyber cafés, even café-building landlords. However, this problem has proven to be more widespread then just internet cafes. In Nigeria, there is a huge problem with corruption in the government, and some feel that internet scams are in the nation's best interest because they provid money for the economy. But this is not the only concern expressed by U.S. officials. As the Nigerian government begins to crack down, these internet scammers are moving into neighboring countries like Benin, where there is little to no government control. Also, even if the 419 becomes less profitable, scammers are conjuring up new types of internet fraud like online actions.

In conclusion, these types of fraudulent activates can be prevented by being aware and being skeptical of any e-mail makes and offer that is too good to be true because it probably is. Nigerian e-mail scams will be a problem for many years to come, but new programs preventing these types of e-mails from getting to your account are being used by most e-mail providers. Case Citations

(2006). Common Fraud Schemes. Retrieved November 5, 2007, from Federal Bureau of Investigation Web site: http://www.fbi.gov/majcases/fraud/fraudschemes.htm

(2004). Nigerian Advance Fee 419 Fraud advanced fee internet e-mail web scams from South Africa & West African / Ivory Coast / Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation frauds.. Retrieved November 5, 2007, from crimes-of-persuasion.com Web site: http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/Crimes/Business/nigerian.htm

Eric, Rosenberg (March 31, 2007). U.S. Internet fraud at all-time high. Retrieved November 5, 2007, from sfgate.com Web site: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/03/31/MNGSCOVGGI1.DTL

(2006). The Internet Crime . Retrieved November 5, 2007, from Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National WhiteCollar Crime Center (NW3C) Web site: www.ic3.gov/media/annualreport/2006_IC3Report.pdf

If you think you've become a victim of identity theft or fraud, act immediately to minimize the damage to your personal funds and financial accounts, as well as your reputation. Here's a list -- based in part on a checklist prepared by the California Public Interest Research Group (CalPIRG) and the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse -- of some actions that you should take right away:

1. Contact the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to report the situation, whether --

2. Online,

3. By telephone toll-free at 1-877-ID THEFT (877-438-4338) or TDD at 202-326-2502, or

4. By mail to Consumer Response Center, FTC, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580.

Under the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act , the Federal Trade Commission is responsible for receiving and processing complaints from people who believe they may be victims of identity theft, providing informational materials to those people, and referring those complaints to appropriate entities, including the major credit reporting agencies and law enforcement agencies. For further information, please check the FTC's identity theft Web pages . You can also call your local office of the FBI or the U.S. Secret Service to report crimes relating to identity theft and fraud.

Bio

John P. Fadoul

A South Florida native

In December 2007 graduate from Florida Atlantic University with a Bachelors of Business Administration in Accounting

He has a passion for accounting and has the knowledge to apply analytical procedures to complex problems. He love to help and always makes time for is anybody that needs a helping hand.

Currently he sitting for the CPA exam in Vermont board

If you with to contact John Fadoul
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jfadoul

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Fadoul

7 Ways to Protect Yourself Online

Based on information provided on the Internet World Stats website, there are about 1.3 billion internet users worldwide. Some of these users are friendly people who want to enjoy entertaining themselves, communicating with friends and family, or researching and shopping. There are others who may be conducting business online and there are stil others who are there to harm your computer.

The Internet can be a great place to do a lot of great things, but special care should be taken to make sure conditions are as safe as possible.

Here they are:

1) Scan for viruses - It doesn't matter as much about what program you are using as it does how often you use it. Having the best virus software and never using it is about as bad as having no software at all. Computers can become infected in a number of different ways, so it makes sense to scan and scan often.

2) Scan for spyware - It's really not a great thing when someone can watch what you're doing from your home or business computer. Whether they are watching directly or indirecting, using software, caution should be taken to make sure spyware is removed.

3) Avoid internet scams - If it sounds too good to be true or if you're getting something for nothing, avoid it at all costs. There are probably scams being created every day that focus on people's emotions in order to persuade them to take some type of unwise action. If you fall for a scam, it can costs hundreds or thousands of dollars and can be hard to dispute if you try to prove that the actions were fraudulent.

4) Avoid hoaxes - Hoaxes play on people's emotions especially to forward emails that contain myths or folklore. Since the emails may sound like something that has actually occurred, people forward them and the process continues.

5) Report and Recognize Phishing - Phishing involves someone trying to obtain your personal information such as bank account information through cleverly designed emails and webpages. The best thing to do is to report these types of incidents to the necessary authorities. The key component is actually recognizing the phishing attempts. If you receive an email that asks for personal information or has a link to login to an account, avoid it 99% of the time. Most organizations will not ask for social security numbers, account numbers, or passwords from email.

6) Avoid pornography - The best solution for avoiding most pornography that exists on the web is to install a filter. One of the filters that I recommend can be found Bsafeonline.com.This will take care of most of the process. Inappropriate sites will be blocked and parents can take an active approach at controlling the internet use in their home.

7) Use caution when blogging - Blogging can be a great thing most of the time. It is great for search engine optimization and building communities online, but caution should be used when including information that is personal or when discussing details of other people's lives. In addition, to keep people from stalking you, I would not suggest chronicling every detail of your every day life.

Devin Dabney is a computer consultant, author, speaker, and entrepreneur who is the founder and CEO of DabneyWorks Computer Consulting. DabneyWorks provides remote and in-person computer assistance , website design and auditing, and business consultation.

How Hackers Can Get To Your E-Gold Account

Imagine having the terrible experience of checking your e-gold account only to find that the money that was supposed to be there has been withdrawn and your balance is down to zero.

The only explanation for this is that somebody has hacked into your account and has withdrawn the money with the help of spyware software installed without your knowledge on your computer over the Internet.

And it gets even scarier. Actually this can happen to you even if your computer has the latest anti-virus and firewall software protection. Too many times, people with this kind of protection assume that all is well only to get the shock of their lives when their online e-gold accounts are cleaned out. Always remember that anti-virus software and even firewall is NOT enough to keep out hackers because it does not address their favorite tool of trade, namely spyware.

Spyware is a software that gets into your computer through the Internet and literally spies on your every activity. Forms of spyware vary and range from virtually harmless cookies that track you across the various websites you visit to the deadly keystroke loggers that record your passwords to various accounts including other extremely sensitive data. The information is then transmitted back to a special destination that the hacker has full access to. The rest is then very easy to do and within no time the victim finds that their e-gold account has been cleaned out.

The reason why e-gold is an especially popular target with hackers specializing in the withdrawal and transfer of funds is because many people do not access their e-gold accounts daily. The vast majority of account holders have very few transactions using e-gold, probably even one or two in a month.

There are four ways that spyware can get into your computer. It can ride with software that you have downloaded from the World Wide Web to install in your computer.

Secondly hackers can find an open port in your computer where they can virtually install anything over the net.

Thirdly spyware can arrive as part of an email attachment which automatically installs itself onto your computer the minute you open the email message in question.

Finally it can be installed physically by somebody with access to your computer.

To protect your e-gold account, you will need to get good anti-spyware software and then ensure that you update it regularly.

Another thing to do when in doubt is to never leave substantial e-gold funds hanging around in your account for long periods of time. Transfer them to a more secure account the minute you receive payment.

Understandably the whole idea with e-gold accounts is to keep your assets and accumulate them in an e-gold account to protect yourself from currency fluctuations. Good strong protection against spyware is therefore the most practical protection for e-gold account holders.

Be Aware Of Phishing Scams

If you surf the web, purchase products over the web or use the many financial services offered by your credit card company, bank and even Paypal and Ebay, then you should be aware of Phishing scams and how they can affect you personally.
Phishing scams are when hackers or criminals masquerade as a legitimate entities in order to steal sensitive information such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, etc to commit fraud. Phishing scams are numerous on the web and can affect almost anyone. Here are some tips to easily spot phishing scams and what to do if you think your information has been compromised.
How to Spot Phishing Scams
A vast majority of phishing scams come in the form of email. Emails are sent to possibly millions of people stating that they are from a legitimate entity such as American Express, Chase Bank, Ebay, Paypal, etc. The email itself looks very convincing (in fact, it is usually an exact copy of official emails sent). Within the email it will usually state that your account information is not up to date and not updating this information could jeopardize your account. It will usually give you a hyperlink to click on to update your account information which will usually ask you for your full name, address, social security number and account number. Once you have given all your sensitive information to this web site, the hacker or criminal organization can now use this info to make purchase online using your credit card information, open up loans using your info and literally steal money from your bank account.
Three ways to spot phishing scams are to make sure that the email is addressed directly to you. Inside the email itself, it should state your full name. If it says "Dear member" or "Dear customer" it most likely is a phishing scam. Secondly, the email that you receive the message from should be the one that you have given to the company. If you have five email address and use only one email address for all your finance related business, any emails you receive on your other email addresses are likely phishing scams. Thirdly, the vast majority of financial companies will never ask you for your account information or other sensitive info through an email. Email is not privacy protected and legitimate companies will not harm their customers in such a way.
An Easy Way to Thwart All Phishing Scams
Whether you think an email is legitimate or not, never click on any hyperlink within the email, instead, simply open up a new browser window, type in the financial company's address and log into your account. If your account requires any kind of update, it will state it. Usually, most companies will send you a letter in the mail or call you directly if there is some kind of issue. But even over the phone, make sure you are talking with a representative of the company before giving out information. They should have the information themselves and not be asking you for it.

Cyber Law : The Obstacles Facing Cyber Law Enforcement

The online community is cruel and ruthless leaving no margin of error for anyone. Once you make a bona fide mistake you get crucified immediately. It is because of this general attitude among many people in social communities, that people jump to unfair and unjustified conclusions. Most participants of these communities are used to this behaviour and are not bothered by it too much. Most of these unjustified remarks often cause embarrassment for the comment maker, which is well deserved, because you should take the consequences of your actions for speaking out loud without thinking. Where am I going with this? What does this have to do with fighting cyber crime?

Let me explain with an example: When a big company like Microsoft cause a security risk for users of Internet Explorer out of negligence, you can be sure that the press (including the online community) will throw some big stones at them. This response is justified because the safety of innocent users is put at risk because of the negligence of a respectful organisation. But when Microsoft makes a remark that is misunderstood by some people, without causing any security threats because of this ill formulated remark, why should they be crucified? Microsoft is run by people and people make mistakes. If the community wants to rant and rave about something, then find something that deserves some ranting and raving and stop wasting time on things that can be excused. The company has to waste valuable resources to put out the fires caused by this overreaction instead of using those resources to improve the security of their products. No, I am not a Microsoft prophet, I am simply using them as an example.

Investigating spam and determining the origin of a scam letter is not as simple as tracking an IP address. Most people think so, but that is because they never really tried to locate a spammer on their own after being spammed. It is very easy to forge an e-mail header and that makes it almost impossible to locate the real sender of the e-mail. Even if the header is not forged, you never know whether it is a case of identity theft. Computer criminals hack into e-mail accounts, they hijack web sites and use it to their advantage under the identity of an innocent victim. This enables them to operate undetectable by moving from one account to another. Jurisdictional constraints makes it is hard for federal organisations of one country to prosecute crimes committed in another crime, not even to speak of locating the criminal.

Abuse departments of hosting companies and service providers are so swamped with so many daily reports of spam and network abuse that it is impossible for them to respond to each and every spam report individually. It obviously creates the impression that they do not really take action against the guilty parties. Of course, some companies appear to have an abuse department, but it is only a front to make people believe that they take action against spammers. This discourages people from reporting cyber crime and it effectively allows cyber criminals to operate in the open without the risk of getting caught.

People take cyber crime lightly, cyber crime is being handled as crime committed in another dimension, a dimension not regulated by law. Cyber crime is just like any other crime committed in the normal world, the only difference comes in the methods of investigation. Cyber swindlers are real life criminals, they should never be underestimated. The fact that they operate behind a computer screen makes no difference. Law enforcement agencies do not really care about the person robbed from a couple of dollars, they only pursue the big fish. Unfortunately this is how most scammers operate. They steal a bit from one victim, they steal a bit from another victim, they steal a bit from hundreds of helpless victims and pocked thousands of dollars in the end. Law enforcement agencies will take this crime more serious if everyone starts to report it to their local police department. Sooner or later they will realise that something has to be done. Many police departments are also not equipped to handle digital evidence effectively and many police officers still do not have the skills to conduct proper cyber crime investigations.

Cyber crime is very volatile and cannot always be solved using conventional methods, so I appeal to the online community not to question the unconventional methods of cyber crime investigators. At least they are doing something about an epidemic that is ignored by many influential and powerful organisations.

Phishing Attacks Reach New Level

The Georgia Institute of Technology has teamed up with Google to investigate how to counter new forms of phishing attacks by hackers. Hackers are able to control users' internet browsing by using the "open recursive" DNS (Domain Name System) server. This type of attack is not new, although hackers have developed a technique that makes it almost undetectable by anti-virus and anti-phishing software.

A DNS server is an internet service that translates domain names into a numerical internet protocol address. For example, users would type "google.com" into an internet browser and it would translate it to something that would look like this: "207.35.118,135". The internet browser would then direct the user to the site.

DNS servers work together in a network. If one DNS server can't find the address it would send it to another one until the address is found. Unlike other DNS servers, open recursive DNS servers answer all DNS look-up requests from any computer on the internet. It is this feature that hackers use.

Google and the Georgia Institute of Technology have discovered that there are over 17 million open recursive DNS servers. Most of these give accurate information, but 0.4% or 68,000 are giving users false addresses to phishing sites. The hackers are able to send users to phishing sites with the DNS.

Phishing sites are false sites set up by hackers. Hackers would create sites that look like the original and get users to give information such as usernames, passwords and pin numbers. For example, they could copy an online bank site and get users to register and log in. The login information is sent to the hacker and he or she is able to use it to gain access to the user's bank account. They trick users into entering their phishing site by sending a fake email. The email, for example, could be made to look as though it came from the user's bank, asking them to login and update their details. The e-mail would then contain a link to the phishing site.

Hackers are using the open DNS system by targeting the user's settings. The user would either open a virus infected attachment on an e-mail or a website with the virus embedded in it. The virus will exploit the user's computer by changing just one file in Windows registry setting. The changed setting will allow the hacker to have complete control over the user's browser.

If the virus is not stopped during the initial stages, it can go undetected for the rest of its existence. Users might believe that because they have anti-phishing software they can't be infected. However, because the hacker is operating at DNS level, the anti-phishing software is rendered useless. Hackers would allow the user to browse normally, but would re-direct them suddenly if they tried to use online banking.

Google and the Georgia Institute of Technology are looking into developing a type of software that will counteract the hackers. They are also trying to create more awareness among all administrations to change their DNS servers. There is no real benefit from having an open-server. The Georgia Institute has marked phishing attacks as one of the top threats for 2008.

Help Stop Phishing and Pharming

Technology has brought along with it some criminals too who have found many crooked ways to use the internet to deceive people. They do this by robbing them of their identity and their life savings too. Most people begin to react to phishing attacks slowly as they get completely devastated to find that they have lost everything they have got. This is why even though it may be difficult for most to handle phishing attacks at least we must be aware of how to stop phishing.

To stop phishing it is important that users report these phishing attacks to government agencies, banks and credit card companies. It is only when we report of such phishing emails to the respective banks, credit card companies etc that they will be aware that such fraudulent emails are making the rounds and they will quickly alert all their clients thus saving many innocent people from losing their money.

If you have been a victim of a phishing fraud, make sure that you have all the bank accounts in question closed immediately and inform your banks and credit card companies about your having been deceived into revealing all personal particulars. This is one of the best ways to stop phishing at its source itself.

Another way by which you can stop phishing is by installing anti phishing software in your system so that the software prevents any kind of fraud by scrutinising all the emails coming into your box and alerts you in case there is a suspicious email trying to phish. Once you are alerted, do not on any account open such emails.

Make sure you have an effective anti phishing software installed on your system, which will immediately alert you in case of suspicion. There are spyware programs that effectively detect scam mails and send them to junk.

Most of these phishing emails always play on your sentiments like your having won a lottery ticket etc. You will be naturally thrilled about this and would not think before you unwittingly provide all your personal information and financial information. If you have any suspicion immediately, inform any of the following groups. To stop phishing send the email you have received to the Internet Fraud Complaint centre of the FBI by filing a complaint on their website. You can also report to anti phishing groups. You can find the email addresses of anti phishing groups on the internet.