If you run a website in a lucrative field then you have a higher risk of becoming a target by scam artists. A phishing site is one of the most common ways to scam customers of well known and respected websites nowadays.

If you have a well established and know business or are in charge or running the website of one then having detection systems in place is a must especially for financial institutions and high value transactional websites.

First of it is important to have a plan of action steps in place to minimise the impact of phishing attacks if they were to occur. When a company is aware of a fraud scheme attack then action taken can include posting a notice on their home page to make customers aware of the activities of fraudsters as well as inform customers via e-mail. The e-mail can include advice on how to respond to e-mails which state they are from the business. Include items such as stating e-mails will have customer identifiable details such as name and educate customers on best practices such as type the internet address into the address bar as opposed to clicking on internet links. Educating customers will significantly reduce the impact a phishing scam can have on a business as less customers will be taken in by new variants of phishing schemes.

Companies should also continually monitor new domain name registrations, looking out for domains that breach trademarks and addresses that are very similar to the company URL as this has a strong chance of being used to launch fake websites to fool customers.

There are new services available on the internet that helps fight phishing scam attacks and other threats. From domain name service tracking to alert you of potential threatening domain names and anti-spam sellers which will scan e-mails and will inform you if a possible phishing attack is detected. Should a phishing scam be identified, companies should inform ant-spam filter companies as they can update their filters, which can block many of the e-mails from ever reaching customer inboxes.

These are good basic steps to take to protect a business however internet scams are constantly evolving as scammers look to use new methods to scam individuals and businesses. I would recommend seeking professional advice and attending a fraud prevention conference such as the Marcus Evans scam conferences where attendees will learns about the latest scams, prevention techniques and opportunity to network.