In this CBS News video, Savage says she considered herself savvy in doing business online. She frequently banked and shopped online, and followed all of the recommended security practices. But one day when she tried to make a purchase with her bank card, Savage discovered that an identity thief had stolen $3,000 from her account.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Savage likely was the victim of keyboard spyware, a newer type of phishing attack. With this more sophisticated type of attack, malicious software is hidden inside programs or emails that consumers download from the web. Once it’s on your computer, it can watch every keystroke you make—most importantly, your passwords and other sensitive personal information.

Protect Yourself From Phishing Attacks
Banks and retailers work to prevent these types of phishing attacks. But you can also reduce your risk by installing anti-spyware software, which looks for programs that have been installed on your computer to track your online activities.

More traditional phishing attacks involve phony emails asking you to reconfirm your account information. These emails take you to a bogus website where you type in your password and inadvertently open your account to the identity thief.

Even the experts can have a difficult time telling the difference between phony sites and the real versions. But you can protect yourself from these types of attacks by following a few guidelines:

• Call the company or organization to confirm that the email asking for your personal information is legit

• Go to the company’s website via a search engine or by typing in the URL, not by clicking through from the email

• Never enter your personal information in a pop-up window

• Install pop-up blocking software

• Constantly protect your identity with a credit monitoring service

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© Cole for Identity Theft Blog, 2009. | Phishing Attacks—Don’t Become the Next Victim! | http://www.identitytheftblog.com/74/latest-phishing-attacks/