Test your ability to spot a phishing scam

[do-lolly]

This was on the Yahoo site. I took the test and scored 7 out of 10. It's scary that I missed three of them. See how well you can do.

http://www.siteadvisor.com/quizzes/phishing_0707/

[jmarie]

I am afraid that I only got 5 correct.

Who has the time to take enough time to read an entire document to notice two exclamation points or any double spaced words...So, what I do is whenever I receive something...anything from business I just refuse to answer any email from any company. What I do is to delete it from my email and then go to the website that I have listed on my accounting sheet and see if there are any messages or ALERTS for me.

[Krysia1031]

This is a great test! I got an 8 out of 10, but I was sure that the ones I got wrong were right. Sheesh! You really have to be careful nowadays.

[SDMomChef]

That was interesting - I did get 8 out of 10 right, but I guessed on at least 4 of the sites. It was interesting to see what was wrong about the fake sites. However - who could read the little print to even pick up on some of the clues? Maybe I need bifocals! LOL! :D

[sneezles]

Well, I only scored 7/10 but didn't realize that you could enlarge the "pages" to view them better and I certainly didn't bother to read the entire "page"...shame on me!:o

[lindrusso]

I got 9/10 - the Chase one threw me off.

The Amazon one was tough - there were things about each page that matched their real sign-on page - the top of the real page matched their actual page, but the bottom did not.

Anyway, it was very helpful for finding more things to look for when you're not sure about a site.......

[BarbaraL]

I only got 5/10 correct, but just started guessing. Even when I clicked the "view larger" tab, I couldn't see the text well enough to make a good judgement. No way I could see an extra space, etc, with the resolution I was able to get.

[Kristal]

I scored a 10/10 (!), but several of them were complete guesses.

[raka1214]

I got 7/10 - I missed one of the paypal ones and the SSL certificate question at the very end. shame on me.

[LakeMartinGal]

I got 7/10, but missed Chase and the SSL certificate one and the MySpace one -- I don't use Chase or MySpace, but I should have known about the SSL certificate, and now I do!:)

[ljt2r]

What exactly is phishing? I started to take the quiz, but when all the websites (as far as I got) were for sites/companies that I don't ever use, it started to feel pretty pointless so I quit. :o

Laura

[badunnin]

What exactly is phishing? I started to take the quiz, but when all the websites (as far as I got) were for sites/companies that I don't ever use, it started to feel pretty pointless so I quit. :o

Laura

Laura - from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing)

Phishing is a scam where someone (the bad people) will basically clone a site, hoping you won't notice, in an effort to gain access to your personal information (userids, passwords, SSNs, maiden names, etc). It's definitely not limited to the sites in this quiz!

[SugarNSpice]

8 out of 10

I was trying to spot the web sites that were cheap looking, but I'm glad they did the break down at the end. I wasn't looking at the right things for the most part.

[ljt2r]

Laura - from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing)

Phishing is a scam where someone (the bad people) will basically clone a site, hoping you won't notice, in an effort to gain access to your personal information (userids, passwords, SSNs, maiden names, etc). It's definitely not limited to the sites in this quiz!

I guess what I don't understand is how it comes up? You mean I type in www.amazon.com and a site that isn't really amazon comes up? Or is this all through email (in which case I would never give info)?

[Robyn1007]

I guess what I don't understand is how it comes up? You mean I type in www.amazon.com and a site that isn't really amazon comes up? Or is this all through email (in which case I would never give info)?

Yes, it's going to initiate through either email or im. They'll email you saying go to such and such a page and provide a link which won't go to the real website.

[ljt2r]

Yes, it's going to initiate through either email or im. They'll email you saying go to such and such a page and provide a link which won't go to the real website.

Ahhh... DH is a computer scientist, I believe it is under penalty of divorce that I even open that kind of stuff, let alone actually follow their instructions. ;)

Laura