Wikipedia definies Phishing as:  the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.

We’ve been seeing a disturbing increase in this phenomenon over the past years, as criminal entities target us with fake versions of sites that we visit every day: Facebook, eBay, PayPal, MySpace, Twitter, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, etc., etc., etc…..

Hot on the heels of the $500 Whole Foods gift certificate scam, is a new one which took in almost 40,000 Facebook users last week.  Robert McMillan covers this story for Macworld.com.  (Read excerpt below.)

Luckily there are ways to protect yourself from Phishing Scams.  First, we recommend you download and install the newest version of the Mozilla Firefox browser, which includes some great anti-phishing protection.   Additionally, if you suspect an offer to be a little bit fishy (phishy?) you can visit Scambusters Website and check it out before you participate.

A scam Facebook page offering the site’s users a $1,000 Ikea gift card took in nearly 40,000 victims Friday.

It’s the latest example of a new and pernicious trend on the social-networking site as scammers — usually disreputable online marketers trying to earn review by generating Web traffic — have flooded Facebook with these fake gift card pages over the past months.

In late March, a similar $1,000 Ikea gift card scam took in more than 70,000 victims, and just last week another scam Facebook page offering a $500 Whole Foods gift certificate was widely reported.

Friday’s scam page had taken in more than 37,000 users by 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time, offering them a $1,000 gift certificate in exchange for promoting Ikea to their friends. At that time, the page was gaining new fans at the rate of about 5,000 per hour. The promotion, the page said, was only available for one day.

To participate, users must become a fan of the fake Ikea page, hosted on Facebook, and then invite all their friends to become fans. They are then directed to an affiliate marketing page hosted by GiftDepotDirect.com, where they are asked personal information such as name, address, date of birth and home telephone number.

After that step, the victim is told to sign up for two online marketing offers — these ones with legitimate Web sites such as Netflix and CreditReport.com — in order to claim the gift card.

Click HERE to read the rest of this article on Macworld.com

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We cover Tech Tips & Tricks, Creative Software, Important Security Updates, and the tech news stories you want to know about.

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