Phishing

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Revision as of 10:03, 29 November 2015 by JoshuaRivenbark (talk | contribs)

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?

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.