How to Report Phishing
With the increasing prevalence of phishing cases, we have learned that it’s best to protect ourselves from falling victim to this scam. We know now how to identify a phishing email and we’ve realized that it’s wise to just ignore it and not click on any links. However, there’s also a more proactive way to further combat this scam and that is - to report phishing.
Here are 3 ways to report phishing:
First, you can report phishing to the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG). The APWG is a volunteer organization focused on eliminating the fraud and identity theft resulting from phishing, pharming and email spoofing of all types. Note that premium members include VISA, Yahoo and eBay. The APWG is currently building an archive of phishing scam emails and websites to help people identify and avoid being scammed in the future.
If you have received a phishing email, copy the entire phishing mail and send to reportphishing@antiphishing.org. Do not forward the phishing email as this approach loses information and requires more manual processing. The APWG will then review the message and any websites to which it links and post it to the Phishing archive.
Another way is to report phishing to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC is a federal agency that works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid them. You can file a complaint at the FTC website (http://www.ftc.gov/idtheft) or call their toll-free hotline (1-877-ID THEFT).You can also choose to send mail to spam@uce.gov. Make sure to copy the entire phishing mail into your email.
It’s also recommended to report phishing to the company that is being imitated. You can send an email or call by telephone. If the phishing concerns eBay or PayPal, copy the phishing email and send to spoof@ebay or spoof@paypal. The relevant department will then attempt to get the phishing site shut down. Your report is crucial as it will enable the company to warn its customers not to respond to any requests for personal information.
By taking a few minutes out of your time to report phishing, you can also help other people be more aware about the scams. Moreover, you can help the companies/organizations track down phishers and eventually take them down. All in all, by making the simple task of reporting phishing, you end up not only protecting yourself from this scam but others as well.
email scams, identity fraud, identity theft, identity theft protection, lifelock, nigerian scams, online banking, paypal email scams, paypal scams, Phishing, spyware
January 15th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Here in Canada there is a group that works with the RCMP as well:
reportphishing@antiphishing.org
is the address to report all the phishing scams. I encourage Americans to cc the above address when reporting scams, as well. The more anti-phishing agencies informed about the various scams, the better.
May 28th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
I’m so thankful to find this article. I often received scam emails from many company that are asking for my personal details and I don’t know where to report it. Thanks for this information. Now I know.