Nowadays most people use plastics as a preferred mode of payment. However, the reverse side of such popularity is a credit card fraud. Scammers are constantly creating new ways to misappropriate your money. Have you received an e-mail asking you to click a link and submit your personal or credit data? These messages are called "phishing" because the sender is fishing for information to commit a credit card fraud. The number of phishing e-mails sent world-wide each month reaches 6.1 billion. If you want to know more about the detection and protection from a phishing scam, this article is for you.

I think that most people have opened an email and found a message from a "Prince" in Africa who randomly chose you out of all the people in the world to help him smuggle his enormous fortune out of his country for a substantial payment. Or how about fake bank or Amazon e-mails telling you that your account has been possibly accessed, so you immediately need to click the link provided, log in and change your password to protect your data?

These messages are an excellent example of phishing scam. It occurs when a consumer receives an official-looking email aimed to fish your personal and financial information by false pretences. For example, the message can ask recipients to update their credit card information or otherwise their account will be terminated. Or you can be offered a special service to protect your credit cards from possible identity theft. Sometimes the e-mails tell recipients that they must resubmit billing information and social security numbers due to the bank's technical problems.

The e-mail instructs you to send an answer or click on a web link that redirects you to a fake website where you need to provide necessary information. Scammers recreate pages using information and logos from legitimate websites in hopes to fool consumers. That's why phishing is considered to be a two time scam. Fraudsters first steal a company's identity and then use it for stealing consumers' identities.

If you want to avoid credit card information theft, follow these simple steps. They will help you detect a phishing scam.

• Beware of any email messages that ask you to provide your personal or credit card information online. In most cases, banks and reputable companies do not request their customers to update or verify information via e-mail.
• Do not click the hyper link provided. Otherwise, you can confirm your email address as one in use, go to an unsafe website and possibly leave your computer open to viruses or other threats.

• If you get a suspicious e-mail, call the company it appears to be from or open a separate window, type in the official address of the company and check the site for information. In just about every case you will find that the message you received is a fraud.
• Never give out your personal information, even something as small as your address without knowing the person very well, especially via email. It is best if any information is transmitted on line through a secure site, with encryption.
• Report all suspicious messages to the retailer or credit company that it claims to be from. This helps to detect and prevent a credit card fraud.