Internet Security: Protecting Yourself from Phishers

[GiTS]

So I'm taking a computers for business class and the teacher did a lecture on how everyone on the interent is trying to steal from me. One thing he talked about was phishing. What I don't get, and he couldn't really answer, is that phisherman(phishers?) use websites to mimic legit sites to get you to give them your info to steal your credit card info. But you need a credit card to buy a website. So are these guys using their own credit card and just preying no one does a WHOIS lookup? It seems kind of like a catch 22 otherwise. They'd need my credit card to make a site to steal my credit card.

 

[imabug]

more than likely they're using a credit card stolen from someone else. it's not always credit card info they're after either. Phishers in general are after any info that will let them hijack your identity: names, birth dates, SSNs, passwords, etc.

 

[bob1182006]

There are free hosts for websites that don't require you to have ad's on the website, and they would just ask for information which you could just lie about in order to make an account with them.

So the only link to the person behind this would be an ip address that may be logged with the website host, which may be behind many proxies...

 

[kenewbie]

You need a license to buy a gun, so how can someone use it in a robbery and then toss it away without getting caught.

You get the idea.

k

 

[chroot]

You don't need a credit card to have a website. You need an internet connection, that's all. It's pretty easy to steal those these days.

- Warren