Most people have seen them, the e-mail that purport to be from your bank, credit card company or well-known company which claims you need to log into a site in order to update their records for security reasons or a systems upgrade. Yet more often than not, the email is a scam, designed by criminals to get you to ‘login’ to their fake site (which often looks uncannily like the real thing) so that they can grab your details and use them for nefarious purposes.

These attacks are known as ‘phishing’ attacks and come under the identity fraud umbrella. According to recent research, phishing attacks are on the increase with the first three months of 2008 seeing an increase of more than 200% over the same period in 2007.

These figures make for scary reading and the number suggest that large numbers of people are falling prey to these phishing scams. So, here are MoneyTowers.com,компютри втора употреба we have put together a short guide to help you beat the phishers and help keep your money and your identity safe.

- Don’t open any attachments unless you are expecting them. Some attachments can contain malicious programs which will install themselves on your PC and send your personal data to criminals.

- Genuine companies will not ask for your passwords, PINs or account numbers. If you get unsolicited e-mails, even if they look genuine, delete them.

- If you receive an e-mail and you are unsure as to whether it is genuine or not, call the organisation who will be able to confirm whether they sent the email or not.

- Make sure you have the latest virus and anti-spyware programs installed on your PC. Ensure that your computer and your virus and anti-spyware is kept up-to-date and make sure you run a full scan of your system on a regular basis.

- If you do have to access a company login screen (for example for your online banking), always type the URL into your browser yourself – do not try and access it from a link in an email, however genuine the link may look.

- Try not to access your online accounts in public places such as in an internet café. If you have to, make sure no-one is looking over your shoulder when you type your sensitive information in.

- It is wise to check your credit report regularly to make sure that no-one is trying to borrow money in your name. Click here if you would like to see our guide to credit reports and your credit rating.