Phishing: Difference between revisions

From xat wiki
No edit summary
No edit summary
Line 43: Line 43:
====Use different passwords for different accounts==== <!--T:16-->
====Use different passwords for different accounts==== <!--T:16-->
You should NEVER use the same password on your email account or xat account as you use for your login to ANY other site. If someone managed to phish your password on their site, they would have control of your email as well. Often this means they can access all your accounts on every site you use and it's more difficult to regain control of them again. If your email password is used on other sites, including xat.com, you should change it right away. If your email account has been phished you should contact your email provider for assistance.
You should NEVER use the same password on your email account or xat account as you use for your login to ANY other site. If someone managed to phish your password on their site, they would have control of your email as well. Often this means they can access all your accounts on every site you use and it's more difficult to regain control of them again. If your email password is used on other sites, including xat.com, you should change it right away. If your email account has been phished you should contact your email provider for assistance.
====Use strong passwords==== <!--T:17-->
To make a strong password that cannot easily be guessed, combine letters and numbers into a lengthy password of at least 8 characters, though 14 characters is ideal. Avoid using your name, username, birthday, repeated characters, and common words in your password.


==What do I do if I think I've been phished?== <!--T:20-->
==What do I do if I think I've been phished?== <!--T:20-->

Revision as of 09:46, 29 November 2015

Have you ever been in a situation where you log into your account, only to find out that some of your xats, days and/or powers are missing? Do you suspect that an unauthorized user may have attempted to compromise your account and succeeded? You might be a victim of what we call "phishing."

What is phishing?

Phishing is a trick used by criminals to steal personally identifiable information, such as your e-mail address and password for example. It is not a security flaw and you are not getting hacked. As long as you know what to look for, you can prevent yourself from being phished. You've probably been warned before by your online bank about phishing websites, but most users don't think or worry about being phished when using their "xat" account. On xat, there are criminals who want to steal your e-mail address, password, xats, days, powers and most of all, your identity.

How does the scam work?

A criminal will start off by creating a page that looks exactly the same as xat's registered user account management page. Then, the criminal will create a link (which will redirect to the page) and come up with a convincing way to lure a user into clicking on the link. An example might be offering xats, days and/or powers for free, as long as you click on the link and enter your e-mail address and password into the text box provided. That is definitely a red flag. Under any circumstances, you should NEVER click on the link, nor should you enter your e-mail address and password, regardless of whether it's free. Just by clicking on the link itself, the criminal may already have your IP address.

NOTE: If you come across a page that asks you for the password that's associated with your e-mail address (not your account), it's a phishing website. xat will NEVER ask you for that under any circumstances. Also, do NOT use the same password for any other e-mail addresses or accounts you may have, even if it has nothing to do with xat. You're only increasing your chances of everything else getting compromised.

Besides creating a duplicate page, there is also another way that criminals are doing to steal personally identifiable information from users. What they're doing is either asking users for their flash shared object file or asking users to download a third party program on their computer called ".sol Editor" and want users to provide them the "Value" that's located above the category "Number." Under any circumstances, do NOT provide them the value that's associated with your account. Giving them the value is just like giving them the password and you will end up being phished.

How can I protect myself?

To make sure you don't get phished, you have to understand exactly how it works. When you click on a link in a chat box it may show the image below as a header to warn you not to enter your xat password on this new website.

File:Phish.png

Please do not always rely on this warning showing, as the linkvalidator system is not perfect. We place every effort into making the system as effective as it can be.

Make sure you only enter your username and password on xat.com

There is only one easy way to know that you are at the real login page. That's by looking at your browser's address bar, the place you view or type in the URL of the website you want to visit. By looking there, you'll know what website you are actually on at the moment. For xat, the only page you should login to is "xat.com" or "m.xat.com". You may think you know exactly what the xat login page looks like and that someone could not trick you into typing your info into a fake page, but it is very easy to fall for this! It's also very easy for anyone to make an exact copy of the xat login page, or the login page of any website you use.

Your email password is only to log in to your email

xat will never ask you for your email password. Only use your email password to log in to your email. If a login page asks you for your email password it is not a xat page, it is a phishing page.

Turn on account locking

Account locking will increase the security of your account. See AccountLocking for details. Note that this is not a substitute being cautious to avoiding being phished (see above).

Use different passwords for different accounts

You should NEVER use the same password on your email account or xat account as you use for your login to ANY other site. If someone managed to phish your password on their site, they would have control of your email as well. Often this means they can access all your accounts on every site you use and it's more difficult to regain control of them again. If your email password is used on other sites, including xat.com, you should change it right away. If your email account has been phished you should contact your email provider for assistance.

What do I do if I think I've been phished?

If you think your account has been phished, immediately change your password for your xat account, and your password for your email account. Use the forgotten password feature on xat if you can't login. Changing your passwords will keep out the phisher. For other problems please contact us by ticket at http://xat.com/ticket with "xat I may have been phished" as the subject of the message.


Logging into other users' accounts

Under no circumstances should you ever log in to someone else's account. This is a direct violation of xat.com's terms of service and discovery of this may lead to your own accounts being deleted. If another user needs help they should open a ticket.

How can I report suspected phishing sites?

Go to http://xat.com/ticket and report the site to the "Report Phishing Site" department and xat will take appropriate action.

Think you're a pro on avoiding being phished?

If you think that you're now educated on phishing, why not prove it? To test your knowledge, take the xat Phishing Quiz now.