Phishing for your money

When I was in London recently I tried withdrawing some cash from my British bank, but was denied access. On calling the bank I was asked if I had made several transactions — when “no, no, no and no” were my replies I was informed I’d been defrauded. Thousands of dollars had been taken from my account. I’d get the money back, but would first have to sign a declaration form, get a new credit card and wait 10 days to be reimbursed. Whew. Relating the story to friends it was surprising to find that all of them had either had a relative defrauded or experienced it themselves; in some cases more than once. How it happens is by “phishing,” where hackers send in what are called Trojans — software downloaded without knowledge of the user — that take screen shots of your computer, allowing the capture of passwords and