NEW WORDS FOR THE NETIZENS...

A Netizen is a person who spends a lot of time on the Internet. The term Netizen is a blend of two other familiar words: Internet and citizen. A comparatively young word, Netizen came into English in the 1990s. Netizens spend the most of their time in social networking (on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter etc) and other forms of online communication.

Netizens are also referred to as cyber citizens. Both Netizen and cyber citizen were coined by Michael Hauben (1973-2001), an American computer specialist and author who was a pioneer in identifying the collaborative nature of the Internet and its effects on the global community.

And now, if you are reading this blog, probably you are a digital native. What does it mean? A digital native is a person born or brought up during the age of digital technology and so familiar with computers and the Internet from an early age. The Digital Age began in the late 1960s.

Then what word can best describe the people who were born before the Digital Age, yet adapted to the activities (Internet, social networking and so on) of the digital natives? Well, they are digital immigrants! Interesting, isn't it?

What is the opposite of Feminist?

A feminist is a person who supports the belief that women should have the same rights and opportunities as men. Feminism refers to all the movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. The feminist activities have undoubtedly helped a lot in changing the position of women in the society.

Well, it is now clear that a feminist is one who advocates equal rights for women. But what about a person who supports and defends the rights of men? The word is ‘hominist’! Don’t think it is a newly invented word; the term was coined by George Bernard Shaw, more than a century ago.

However, the word hominist did not gain much popularity. Now another word ‘masculinist’ (also masculist) is widely used instead.

Crazy English pronunciation. Part 2

When I was in fifth class in which I started learning the spellings and pronunciation of English words, my English teacher used to tweak my ear for mispronouncing the word 'hood'. I used to pronounce hood with a long u – something like /hoood/ instead of /hud/. My budding mind, as in the case of any children, thought all the words with ‘oo’ should be pronounced in the same way as in food, fool, noon, mood, soon, moon, loo etc.

Crazily enough, while a number of common words like moon, food, noon, broom, zoom, boon, proof, roof etc are pronounced with a long ‘u’ sound, so many other words with the same pattern take only a short ‘u’ in pronunciation e.g. book, cook, hood, look, wood, foot and so on.

If you think that the confusion is over just after learning these two rules, what about the words like ‘door’ and ‘floor’? Though they follow the same pattern of spelling, the pronunciation is different!

Is that all? Wait! A fourth small group of words (thank God, only two words in this category!) behaves in a totally different way: blood and flood. The ‘oo’ in them rhymes with the ‘u’ in ‘mud’ ‘thud’ and ‘dull’ !

Isn’t English crazy? Please comment…

What is CV?

The French word curriculum vitae must be pronounced somewhat like ka-ree-kyu-lam vee-taai. Vitae can also be pronounced vai-tee (consult a pronunciation dictionary). Some people wrongly spell this word as carriculam vitae, perhaps due to its striking resemblance with the other related words career, curricular etc. Remember that there is no ‘a’ in curriculum.

A curriculum vitae (also known as CV) differs from a resume mainly in two aspects: length and focus. While a resume is a crisp description in just a page or two, a curriculum vitae is usually as long as two to four pages; sometimes even up to eight pages as per the requirement! It focuses on the academic qualifications of the applicant whereas a resume highlights the professional experience and expertise.

A CV outlines all the educational qualifications and professional affiliations in chronological order so that the employer can take a quick look at the progress of the applicant qualification after qualification Besides, it includes honours, awards, presentations, research experience and so on. A college or university graduate who is starting to hunt a job prepares their curriculum vitae so that the potential employer can get an in-depth knowledge about their academic performance based on which they will be getting the right job.

A final word: though there a few such intricate differences between a resume and a curriculum vitae, the current trend is to use the two words interchangeably. The day is not too far when these differences between the two words will fade away. The most important thing is whether you write a CV or resume, the aim should be to get the employer call you for an interview!

Difference between RESUME and CURRICULUM VITAE

Résumé and curriculum vitae are two familiar words to every educated individual today. Though they are roughly the same in meaning, there are a few subtle differences between the two.

Résumé is basically a French word meaning ‘summary’. It is one of the widely mispronounced words too. The pronunciation of the word is something like re-zyu-mei with a stress on ‘re’. Please use a pronunciation software to get it right. A resume primarily highlights a person’s professional skills, recent work experience, responsibilities held, outstanding achievements etc. The details are given in reverse chronological order i.e. latest experience first, followed by the previous ones. It also outlines the applicant’s educational qualifications but in brief, unlike in a curriculum vitae.

The length of a good résumé is generally one page (preferably A4 size). If too difficult to summarize on a single page, use two, not more than that. It is not necessary to include your sex, religion, hobbies, interests and so on in a résumé.

In short, a résumé is a customized summary which is used by experienced professionals to get a better targeted opportunity. Freshers on the look out of a job should prepare and submit a curriculum vitae about which we will discuss in my next blog.


Click to jump to next post about CV: http://novaenglishcampus.blogspot.in/2011/05/what-is-cv.html

FAMILY is or FAMILY are.......

My family is a wonderful family.

My family are very close to one another.


In the first sentence, the noun family is used as a single unit of people. This sentence is correct if you think of the family as ‘a single body’.

But in the second sentence, family is treated as plural as the speaker wants to emphasize that every member in their family is close to one another.

The word 'family' is an example of a 'collective noun'. Some other words in this category are 'group', 'committee', 'jury', 'team', 'public', 'army', 'congress', etc.

So, the question that whether a collective noun should be treated as singular or plural solely depends upon up on what you want to say i.e. if you think of the collective noun as a unit, treat it as singular, as in

'My family is settled in USA’, ‘The team is in its best form these days’, ‘The jury needs to be impartial in its verdict’, ‘The committee was able to take a firm step against the culprit’ etc.

But if you take a collective noun as individuals acting separately, treat it as plural, as in

‘My family are very co-operative with one another’, (emphasis on each member of the family)

‘Strangely, the team are wearing jerseys of different colours’ (emphasis on each player in the team)

‘The jury have unanimously agreed to the new proposal of the government’ (emphasizing each judge in the jury)

The committee meet once a month’ (emphasizing that each member is present once in a month without fail)

This rule is often strictly followed in British English though this confusing grammatical rule is slowly becoming flexible in modern English.

In American English, collective nouns are almost always treated as singular for example, if you type ‘The jury are considering the verdict’ in MS Word, the software will underline the words ‘jury are’ and prompt you to use ‘jury is’. The reason, as you probably know, is that MS Word accepts only American English grammar and spelling unless you have changed its settings to British English.

How NOKIA got its name?

The brand name Nokia has already become one of the most widely recognizable names in the world. Headquartered in Finland, the telecommunication giant has its business spread across the world.

The brand’s name Nokia is the name of the Finnish city where the company was originally established. But the interesting fact is that the world’s biggest mobile manufacturing company, Nokia Corporation was originally founded as a wood-pulp mill on the banks of the Nokianvirta river from which the city itself got its name, ‘Nokia’. The company later adopted the city's name as its brand name.

However, Nokia no longer seems to have any operations in the town of Nokia! The headquarters were moved to Espoo, located nearly 200 kilometres south of Nokia.

Have you ever gone 'yellular' on your cellular phone?

If you look up in any standard dictionary, you will not find the word ‘yellular’. It is an interesting and useful  slang term which is frequently heard these days. The term is a blend of two familiar words: ‘yell’ (= to shout in a loud, sharp way) and ‘cellular’ (related to cell phone).

Mobile phones obviously help us to stay in touch with our dear and near ones. However, the incessant technical faults sometimes make it difficult for the listener to hear what the person on the other end says. It can be due to poor network coverage or technical glitch of the user’s cell phone among many other reasons.

What happens normally on such occasions? The speaker yells at the top of their voice, thinking that yelling will troubleshoot the fault and make the connection better! This act of shouting, which is often a nuisance for others, is called ‘yellular’. When you see someone does it, you can say, ‘he’s going yellular’.

More examples:

1) My Bengali roommate goes yellular whenever she talks to her parents who live in some remote village in West Bengal.

2) Tom: “Hey, why are you screaming through your cell phone?”

Jerry: “It’s a terrible line, buddy. So I’m trying my yellular technology!”

3) After disturbing our sleep by snoring aloud the whole night, he went yellular at 5 o’ clock in the morning.

4) Stop going yellular and try to call her back after some time.

KITCHEN CABINET

Becoming the premier or president of a country is one of the most ambitious and shining jobs in the world. But at the same time, while having been elected by the people in a democratic republic, such high profile leaders have to make very important decisions on various issues during their tenure in power to win the hearts of the citizens. And these decisions should also be wise enough to please the media and most importantly to silence the opposition.

In most of the cases, the head of a State does not make the decisions themselves. Rather, he or she consults a small group of people who are very close to them. This highly confidential group of people is called a ‘kitchen cabinet’. These unofficial advisors are not often politicians but the premiers implicitly trust them.

Why does the head of a state turn to kitchen cabinet for advice rather than depending on his own official cabinet? Perhaps, because the official cabinet consists of politicians – a species who are not meant to be trusted even if they belong to your own party!

The origin of the phrase ‘kitchen cabinet’ dates back to 1830s when Andrew Jackson was the President of the USA. Whenever an important decision had to be made, he would turn to three of his close friends whom he trusted the most. But the most interesting fact is that Jackson always let these decision makers enter the White House through the kitchen door as he did not want the media, the other ministers or the public to know the secret of ‘his’ decisions. It is also believed that most of their meetings took place in the kitchen – an activity that gave birth to a new phrase in English, 'kitchen cabinet'!

Today’s media also use a few other expressions to mean the same; ‘think tank’ and ‘brain trust’ being the most widely used ones.

So the next time your country’s premier or president is applauded for his people-friendly decisions, you can imagine how they made it possible!

What does 'Adidas' mean?

Adolf Dassler was the younger of the two sons of a German cobbler. He is better known as the founder of ‘Adidas’, the second biggest sportswear manufacturer in the world, after its American rival ‘Nike’. Adidas is head quartered in Germany. The brand name ‘Adidas’ is a modified term made up of the brand owner’s name: ‘Adi’ and ‘Das’. ‘Adi’ was the nickname of Adolf Dassler.

Soon after Adi started his home-based shoe manufacturing business in 1920, his brother Rudolf Dassler also joined him as a partner.

The original name of the company was Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory). But when the elder brother split up with Adi few years later due to political and personal reasons, he renamed the brand 'Adidas'.

Today, Adidas develops revolutionary products for six sports: swimming, track & field, cycling, fencing, weightlifting and wrestling besides manufacturing bags, shirts, watches, eyewear, perfumes and other sports and clothing-related goods. Do you know that other familiar brands ‘Reebok’ and ‘Rockport’ are also the subsidiaries of Adidas?

TEXTUAL SATISFACTION!

What is the first thing you do immediately after coming out of a building in which the cell phone use is strictly prohibited? Or when you leave your boss’s cabin after an hour’s serious meeting with him? Perhaps the same thing that I do – taking out the mobile phone from the pocket impatiently and checking if I have any sms or missed calls!

And when you find that you had a few interesting messages or missed calls, you feel happy and you can’t hide the flash of smile on your face. You feel thrilled to see that someone was missing you when you were busy or unable to use the phone. Especially if the text messages/missed calls were from your beloved ones, you might feel ecstatic!

This feeling of satisfaction that you get when you realize that someone was missing you is called ‘textual satisfaction’. Notice the rhyming of the phrase with another well known term ‘sexual satisfaction’. Though the adjective ‘textual’ is related to text messages, the new coinage ‘textual satisfaction’ is now widely used to refer to the satisfaction from both sms and missed calls.

In this era of online social networking, the term is also used by many people to refer to the glimmer of happiness that you get when you see a good number of notifications, messages, comments or friend requests on such sites as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Orkut etc.

Do you know how much ‘textual satisfaction’ I get when I see a few precious comments by you on my blog? Indescribable!

Dictionary attack! Time to change your PASSWORD!

Dictionary attack refers to a particular method of breaking into a password-protected computer or server. This is the easiest and most favourite method of attack used by hackers all over the world to steal the passwords. As the very name ‘dictionary attack’ suggests, dictionary is the weapon with which the hacker attacks your password-protected system or server. It is also used for stealing the passwords of your email ID or social networking site accounts.

Now, you might think how a dictionary can be used as a weapon to steal a password. It is an undeniable fact that the majority of the individuals and organizations with an email ID uses a dictionary word as their passwords; perhaps you too! The reason is that dictionary words are precise and easy to remember. In simple terms, dictionary attack is the method of trying every word in a dictionary as a possible password of your computer, server, email ID etc. Years ago this kind of attack was very boring and time consuming for the attackers as they had to guess the password by manually typing each dictionary word one by one. But now the situation has changed; expert hackers have developed computer programs which can automatically generate and try all the dictionary words within the blink of an eye.

Therefore, it is high time that you changed your easy-to-remember password which is found in a dictionary especially an English dictionary. You can, however, bypass the dictionary attack by keeping an alpha-numeric password i.e. a combination of words and numbers along with a few symbols which are difficult to guess. If you want to be highly immune to such attacks, try to personalize your password by using a long meaningless jumble of letters and numerals which cannot be found in any dictionary in the world.

An extra piece of advice: never use the names or nicknames of your dear and near ones as your password, nor the date of birth, telephone number, vehicle number or reversed spelling of your own name because, besides hackers, even those who are closer to you might guess your password simply out of curiosity to peep into your valuable and highly confidential personal data!

Is the word 'PEOPLES' completely wrong? 'No...'

'People' is a word that a number of speakers of other languages misuse when they speak in English. Many of them, knowingly or unknowingly, use ‘peoples’ where ‘people’ must be used.

The word ‘people’ is a plural term, whose singular form is ‘person’. When you talk about human beings in general, you must use the term people. For example, it is incorrect to say, ‘I don’t like the peoples who talk a lot’. The sentence should be ‘I don’t like people who talk a lot’.

However, you cannot say that the word ‘peoples’ is totally meaningless or non-existent in English. When you use the word ‘peoples’ you are referring to several groups of people and each group shares a common culture e.g. ‘his latest book is about the varied peoples of West Africa’. The native peoples of Canada and their problems. In such sentences both ‘people’ and ‘peoples’ are correct. The latter is generally used where emphasis is necessary.

Have you ever been Shanghaied?

A few days ago, I posted a blog on using ‘Bangalore’ as a verb. Today, let us discuss the name of another place which is also used as a verb. The place is Shanghai.

Shanghai is the most populated city in eastern China. In the mid of the 19^th century, it was difficult to get enough number of experienced sailors for the merchant ships headed to the Orient from the West (the Orient refers to the East Asian countries while the West is a common term for Europe and North America). When the sailors were not willing to join the ship, they were compelled by fraud means which included tricking, intimidating, kidnapping and even drugging them.

Shanghai was the most common destination for the ships with such abducted crews. So, when a sailor was forced for compulsory service aboard a merchant ship, his bad luck was described as ‘he was Shanghaied’.

In modern English, shanghai means ‘to trick or force somebody into doing something that they really do not want to do’. The past and past participle forms are shanghaied; the present participle form is shanghaiing.

More examples:

Simon shanghaied the girl into his Ferrari and drove away.

Mary’s parents are shanghaiing her into marrying Simpson.

Why 'GOOD Friday' is not 'BAD Friday'?

It is 'Good Friday' today. Christians all over the world observe Good Friday to commemorate the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It is observed every year on the Friday which comes immediately before Easter Sunday.

Do you know why this day is called ‘Good Friday’? Many people wonder why this day is not termed ‘Sad Friday’ or 'Bad Friday', as Jesus Christ was brutally killed on this day by being nailed to a cross.

There are three arguments behind the origin of the term 'Good Friday'. The most widely accepted argument is that Jesus Christ sacrificed his life willingly so that the sins of the people who believe in Him will be forgiven. Hence this day of sorrow is called 'Good Friday'.

The second argument goes like this: the adjective ‘good’ is an Old English synonym for ‘holy’ or ‘sacred’. So the term ‘Good Friday’ must be interpreted as ‘Holy Friday’.

According to the third and least accepted argument, ‘good’ in ‘Good Friday’ is a corruption of the word ‘God’. A few people believe that originally the day was named ‘God Friday’ which accidentally became ‘Good Friday’ in the long run!

The touching poem below was written after a Hindu friend asked the poet "Why is Good Friday 'good'? Shouldn't it be 'Bad Friday'?"

GOOD FRIDAY -
THIS SOMBRE DAY
WHEN CHRISTIANS MOURN
A 2,000 YEAR OLD DEATH.

HE DIED, SOME SAY, 
TO APPEASE A VENGEFUL GOD,
DEMANDING A ONE-TIME
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
FOR HUMAN SIN,
BOTH PAST AND YET TO COME.
IT WAS, THEY INSIST,
THE ONLY WAY
WE COULD BE SAVED.

OTHERS ASK
IS THIS THE SAME GOD
WHO SAID "THOU SHALL NOT KILL"
NOW OFFERING HIS SON
AS A SACRIFICIAL LAMB
TO BE SLAIN
FOR OUR SALVATION?

YET OTHERS SAY
HE DIED BECAUSE
HE LOVED TOO MUCH -
LOVED THE OUTCAST,
THE SINNER, THE SICK,
THE POOR, THE OPPRESSED.

AS HE HUNG THERE
BLEEDING, DYING,
SOME HEARD HIM SAY:
"FATHER, FORGIVE THEM. 
THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO."
IS THIS WHAT MADE 
THAT BAD DAY GOOD?

WHATEVER WE DO, HE HAD SAID,
WE DO TO HIM.
AND WE ARE CALLED
TO FOLLOW IN THIS WAY.
THUS, IF WE IGNORE ANOTHER'S PAIN
WE SURELY CRUCIFY HIM AGAIN.

IT WAS INDEED A BAD FRIDAY,
MADE GOOD BECAUSE
IT SHOWS THE WAY TO OUR SALVATION -
SALVATION AS LIBERATION.
LIBERATION
FROM OPPRESSION TO JUSTICE,
FROM WAR TO PEACE,
FROM HATE TO LOVE.
AND THIS 
IS TRULY
RESURRECTION.

Poem source: http://www.web.net/~doreenls/GoodFriday.htm

SOCIAL DRINKING and BINGE DRINKING...

Alcoholic drinks have always been a matter of hot debates among the peoples across the world. Here are a few drinking related words that might be of great daily use.

If a person is slightly drunk, you can say ‘he is tipsy’. You can also describe him by saying ‘he is tight’. One who drinks alcohol in very big quantities can be described with a funny idiom – ‘he drinks like a fish’. The term ‘social drinking’ is the act of drinking alcohol at a function etc without the intention of getting too much drunk. One who drinks alcohol only on such occasions can be called a ‘social drinker’.

In many societies, alcoholic drinks are served free at functions organized to celebrate a happy occasion like a wedding party. The temporary bar arranged at such places is called an ‘open bar’. At open bars, some people drink excessive quantities of alcohol with an intention of getting as intoxicated as possible and behave uncontrollably.This practice is widely known as ‘binge drinking’.

‘Booze’ is another popular term for alcoholic drinks. The word can be used either as a noun or as a verb e.g. 'A lot of booze [noun] was served at the party'. 'He spent the whole night out boozing [verb] with his friends'. The adjective form ‘boozy’ can be used to describe a person as in, ‘she is fed up with living with her ‘boozy’ husband’

'When India won the Cricket World Cup, a few of my friends painted the town red'. The idiom means they kept moving from bars to clubs to pubs and enjoyed themselves!

Last but not least, there is a good number of people who never drink alcoholic beverages. They are called teetotallers.

Now tell me. What kind of a drinker are you?

A. social drinker.

B. boozy.

C. teetotaler.

You may comment below.

Don't get BANGALORED!

Even before the Global Economic Crunch hit America badly, many of the American companies started outsourcing their work to various cities in India. Most of such works are in the field of customer care, insurance, tele-marketing etc. The reason why such companies chose Indian cities is simple – plenty of man power with untapped professional skills, and of course cheap labour.

This new trend of offshoring work to a city in India gave birth to a new English word – Bangalore (as a verb). So, when an American says that he/she has been Bangalored, you can be sure that his company has moved its operations to Bangalore. Originally this word was used only to refer to a job which was offshored to Bangalore but now it is used as a general term for any job outsourced to any city in India such Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Hyderabad, Chandigarh and many more.

Although this word was coined by the Americans, an increasing number of multinationals and media across the world are lapping up this Americanism. Earlier too many American words have gained worldwide acceptance, to name a few – beautician, hospitalize, backpack etc. It is expected that the verb Bangalore too will creep into major English dictionaries very soon. The past and past participle form of the verb is ‘Bangalored’.

Here are some sentences to demonstrate how to use the verb ‘Bangalore’ accurately:

1. Bangaloring is one of the reasons some Americans don’t like Indians.

2. A US magazine reports that an estimated 70,000 Americans will be Bangalored by the end of this year.

'Unfriending' and 10 interesting facts about Facebook.

UNFRIEND is a verb which was coined by the worldwide users of Facebook. It means 'to remove a person from your friend-list on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter etc'. Some people argue that the correct term should be DEFRIEND. Anyway, the term has already made its way into some of the well-known English dictionaries in the world!


And here are a 10 interesting facts about FACEBOOK that I googled today:
1. Over 500 million people use Facebook!

2. If Facebook were a country, it would be the fifth largest country in the world, after China, India, the U.S., and Indonesia!

3. 85%+ of all college students use Facebook and 70% of them log in everyday!

4. Facemash (first name of Facebook) attracted 450 visitors and 22,000 photo-views in its first four hours online!

5. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook was once expelled from Harvard University for breach of security, violating copyrights and individual privacy!

6. Facebook removes approximately 20,000 profiles from the site every day for various kinds of violations, including spam, inappropriate content, underage use etc!

7. John Watson, a father who had been seeking his daughter for 20 years reunited with her after seeing her profile on Facebook – An excellent example of the positive social impact of Facebook!

8. An Egyptian man, Gamal Ibrahim, named his recently-born daughter ‘Facebook’. He did it because he thinks that the protests that were largely organized on social networks like Facebook, Twitter etc played a crucial role in the success of 2011 Egyptian Revolution!

9. Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in the world who shot to meteoric success in a short span of time! He is also called an ‘accidental billionaire’ by a few. He literally proved that ‘an idea can change your life’!

10. Google is the only website which gets more web traffic than Facebook!

DON'T GIVE EXAMS!

Sentences like ‘I will give my exam next week’, ‘When did you give your exam?’ etc have caused a lot of confusion among many non-native speakers of English.

When you say that you are 'giving’ an exam, it means that you are probably a teacher or examiner who is conducting the examination. And when you say that you are 'taking' an exam, you are going to be writing one; that is you are a student, candidate or examinee.

Unfortunately, in many parts of the world especially in south Asian countries like India (north in particular), Pakistan, Bangladesh etc this distinction is not always maintained. Due to MTI (mother tongue influence), the majority of people in these parts of the world translate their ideas word by word into English. Strange to say, a good number of speakers of English whose mother tongue is Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Bangla, Haryanvi, etc use give in place of ‘take’ and take in place of ‘give’ while talking about an examination. This is ridiculous and totally opposite to Standard English!

So, if you are a candidate or student who has an exam next week, you should say, ‘I will take my exam next week’. This idea can also be conveyed in another way by saying, ‘I will sit my exam next week’ or ‘I will do my exam next week’. But do not say ‘I will take/write my exam next week’

On the other hand, if you are a teacher who is going to conduct your students’ exam next week, you must say, ‘I will give you an exam next week’, not ‘I will take your exam next week’.

And now, a tip for the confused users to remember this rule: imagine exam is an ice cream. Examiner is your mother. You mother is giving you the ice cream (examiner is giving you the exam) and you are taking the ice cream (hence, taking the exam)!

READ ON IF YOU HAVE A BANK ACCOUNT!

Phishing is a term that everyone who has a bank account needs to be familiar with, especially those who do Internet banking. Internet banking, also known as online banking refers to performing an online financial transaction such as an account to account transfer, payment of a bill, wire transfer, applying for a loan, opening a new account, etc.

Phishing is the fraudulent practice of sending emails which look like the emails that you normally receive from a bank or a reputed company that you are dealing with. The purpose of phishing is to lure you to reveal personal information such as passwords, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, online account transfer numbers etc.

Phishers usually send you emails which look almost 99% the same as the emails that you normally receive from a company/bank you trust. Such an email normally contains some suspicious information regarding your recent bank transactions, online money transfer and so on. For example, a phisher’s email may contain a message like this:

Dear Axis Bank* customer,

We would like to inform you that an amount of $24,500/- has been withdrawn from your account at 11:59 pm yesterday from one of our ATMs located in New Delhi. We do believe that you withdrew the money yourself. If not, please click on the following link as soon as you receive this email so that we can investigate the matter immediately and protect your account from fraudulent use.

At your service,

Team (Accounts), Axis Bank

The confused customer will click on the link given in the email immediately fearing the misuse of their hard-earned money. Interestingly, the link also will look surprisingly the same as the bank’s website so that an ordinary customer cannot differentiate it. When you click on the link, it will take you to a new window in which you will be prompted to enter your bank account number, credit card details, password etc. And now you can guess the danger of giving such confidential details to a stranger – here the phisher!

So the next time you get such a fishy email, SMS or instant message, don’t forget to call up your bank or other financial firm from whom you think the email might be from; ask them whether they sent you such an email or message before filling your valuable details onto a phisher’s fraudulent site. Otherwise, you are likely to end up letting your money go astray!

*the name Axis Bank is used only to exemplify the concept. It does not mean that only Axis Bank customers are vulnerable to phishing.

Happy Banking

&

Happy learning…

JACOB (Nova English Campus)