Phishing on the Mac

We all know that the Mac is a very secure operating system and that there are hardly any viruses, spyware, adware or other type of malware programs. However, phishing is another thing altogether and Mac users are just as liable to be caught out as Windows users. A phishing scam has nothing to do with the operating system you have and it works on everything.

Phishing scams usually target users of online banking, payment services, auction sites, and so on. What happens is that an email will arrive in your inbox describing a problem. It will urge you to click a link in the message to take you to a website where you can log in, entering your username and password, and solve the problem.

The message is a fake and it's not from the real company, the website is a fake and isn't the real company, and when you enter your username and password the perpertrator of the scam will use them to log on and empty your account, buy themselves a Porsche using your money or whatever.

Recently Apple has morphed its .Mac online service into MobileMe and it has had some problems. Steve Jobs admitted as much in an email and Apple has extended some users' trial accounts for several months as compensation.

MobileMe problems were great news to phishing scammers because it's an opportunity to rip people off. They wrote an email stating that there was a billing problem and urged anyone with a .Mac or MobileMe account to click the link in the message and update their payment details - a fake Apple site asked users for their credit card details. The scammers could then run up huge bills on other peoples' credit cards.

• Always regard emails as suspicious - they are easily faked
• Never click links in emails - they may take you to fake websites
• Always run your web browser manually and type in addresses
• Use a web browser with anti-phishing technology, like Firefox