Card cracking: When consumers respond to online solicitations for “easy money” and share their debit card or bank account information for withdrawal of funds after a fraudulent check deposit.
Key Logger: A hidden program that tracks or logs sequential strokes on a person’s keyboard to allow remote hackers to capture password(s) and online banking and credit card information.
Malware: Short term for malicious software, which is computer viruses and other types of programs that cybercriminals use to disrupt or access a person’s computer to gather sensitive information.
Personal Identifying Information (PII): Includes name, DOB, SSN, account information, etc.
Pharming: When hackers use malicious programs to route someone to their site with the goal of gathering personal information for identity theft.
Phishing: The use of authentic looking emails typically posing as a bank or government agency to trick a person into responding with personal information, account information, log-in credentials, etc.
Ransomware: A type of malicious software designed to block access to a computer system until a sum of money is paid.
Scareware: Malicious computer programs designed to trick someone into buying and downloading potentially dangerous “protection” software.
Skimming: The use of portable ‘skimmer’ devices on ATMs or card terminals that are secretly installed and typically not visible capture information from the magnetic stripe of the card. The magnetic stripe contains the card number, expiration date, CVV, billing zip code, and the cardholder’s name.
Smishing: Similar to phishing but targeted at SMS (short message service) technology used to send text messages on cell phones.
Spoofing: Where scammers pose as a specific person or business. This occurs most often in the manipulation of a phone number displayed on Caller ID.
Spyware: A type of malware installed on computers or cell phones to track someone’s actions and/or collect information without their knowledge. Spyware may change computer settings to run a background process that automatically redirects users to a malicious site.
Trojan Horse: Software that can be hidden within harmless data and when activated can cause corruption of data on someone’s hard drive and send files and account information to hackers. Unlike viruses and worms, Trojans do not self-replicate and spread to other computers.
Virus: A computer program that can replicate itself and spread from computer to computer or file to file. The virus comes to life only when a specific action is taken such as running a particular program.
Vishing: Also known as “voice phishing” which is the use of recorded messages to telephones, typically stating they are a financial institution to trick a person into giving their personal or account information.
Worm: Similar to a virus, a computer program that can self-replicate and spread independently but without any action by the user.
