Criminal activity can take place in nearly all settings. It can even happen right under someone’s nose if they are not careful. Most of the people who fall victim to Internet scammers typically are not those who are unprotected; they are merely uninformed. Even a person with every pop-up blocker, virus stopper, and spam blocker in the world can fall victim to this heinous crime.

“Phishing” can be defined as criminal activity where phishers, using social engineering techniques, fraudulently attempt to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card information. The word “phishing” is directly linked to the word “fishing,” because the hacker is attempting to catch their information as a fisherman attempts to catch his fish. This term may have been influenced by “phreaking”—a mixture of the words “phone” and “freak”—where people study, experiment with, or explore telecommunication systems.

The first reported account of phishing was on Jan. 2, 1996 by an America Online Usenet newsgroup, though the expression may have been found even farther back in a print edition of the hacker magazine “2600.”

The masterminds behind these criminal acts are what authorities call “phishers.” They definitely carry a “phishing pole” of sorts with a type of digital tackle box. Phishers’ virtual phishing tackle includes: fake websites, e-mails, instant messages, blogs, and social networking sites (MySpace, Facebook, etc.).

Recent hype has arisen in the last couple of years concerning phishing. Anyone can be a victim. One of the phisher’s most devious attempts to steal a persons information is through e-mail. An e-mail sent from a perfect stranger, posing as a service provider (such as a bank), asks the receiver to confirm his or her account or “verify billing information.”

MySpace is another hotbed for phishers to steal information. People whose profiles were hacked into, may have given either their password to the wrong person, or were so excited about that friend request that they did not even care who it was from and approved it. Also, there is a “MySpace Tracker” scheme where the message claims a person can see who is viewing their profile. They compile that information by having access to an account because the user gave it to them.

There is an even sneakier form of phishing out there called “link manipulation” where phishers make near carbon copies of websites in order to obtain a persons sensitive information. This virtual “man in the middle” usually uses a special interface to capture log-in details at the fake site.

Careless mistakes can lead to a person to paying the price. Being cautious is a good way to protect against Internet scammers. Having pop-up blockers, and tools of this nature, are not going to weed out everything; the Internet is still a very dangerous place, regardless. Technology is ever-changing, so, even the most experienced of computer users can be fooled by these phishers. It is important to be aware of the signs.

Common signs of Internet phishers are: spelling mistakes in messages, the lack of personal greetings (though this does not guarantee legitimacy), or the use of images to cover up URLs to look like real ones. These are only a few of the many signs that a person is dealing with a phisher.

Damage caused by phishers can range anywhere from the loss of access to a specific site, or e-mail address, to a hard-hitting financial loss.

There are ways to protect against phishing. The primary way to inhibit the abilities of phishers to gain access to important information is to eliminate what they want: information. Do not give out sensitive information over the Internet and limit online banking, if at all possible.

Anti-phishing software is also available. Certain internet browsers such as Internet Explorer 7, Mozilla Firefox 2.0, and Opera help to protect users by maintaining a list of known phishing sites. According to a report by Mozilla in late 2006, Firefox 2 was found to be far more effective than IE 7 at identifying fraudulent sites in a study by an independent software testing company. A study conducted by 3Sharp, which was commissioned by Microsoft, concluded that Internet Explorer and Netcraft Toolbar were the most effective anti-phishing tools.

No matter what browser is available, beware of the signs of phishing. Also, limit the transfer of important information over the internet. Phishers are lurking.