Phishing and social engineering are terms that have emerged in the Information Age.  Phishing sites and social engineering techniques pose threats to adults and children alike.  Children especially need to be made aware of these threats because children by nature can be overly trusting and gullible.

Phishing

     Phishing refers to using a web site to gather Personally Identifiable Information (PII), such as name, address, phone number, Social Security Number, and bank account or credit card account information.  The end result of posting your PII on a phishing site is identity theft, not necessarily by the site operator.  PII has market value to cyber-criminals just like legal commodities carry value for the average law abiding citizen.  Cyber-criminals will buy PII with the goal of committing identity theft or tapping into the financial resources of the victim.

     Phishing sites often look like legitimate sites.  Some even bear the logo of a legitimate site that is being impersonated.  Sometimes the only indication that the site is not legitimate resides in the Universal Resource Locator (URL) that appears in the address space of the user's browser; a letter may be incorrect or the domain may be invalid.  For instance, the country may be wrong (e.g. firstnational is spelled forstnational or a dot com address appears as dot au).

     Instill in your children the value of PII and the ability to not trust every site that requests information.  Some children become so anxious when registering for children's sites or online games that they loose sight of how valuable and private the requested information may be.

     Many Internet Service Providers include phishing filters with their service offerings.  Many published security suites also include phishing filters that identify possible phishing sites.  Most browsers now also include the provision to include a phishing filter.  If any of these resources are available to you, activate them.  If not, get one.