Introduction

Phishing is a form of identity theft in which, in an email, a sender posing as a trustworthy source attempts to acquire private information, such as your user names, passwords, credit card numbers and social security number. Phishing emails claiming to be from popular banks, credit-card companies, auction sites, social networks and online payment services may look quite legitimate. These fraudulent messages often provide links to spoofed (fake) websites where youre asked to enter sensitive information. Visit Security Extra ( www.securityextra.com (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.), www.snopes.com (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. and other websites to find lists of the top phishing scams. Also check out the Anti-Phishing Working Group www.antiphishing.org/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. and the FBIs Cyber Investigations website www.fbi.gov/cyberinvest/cyberhome.htm (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. where youll find information about the latest scams and how to protect yourself.

Objective

In C++, Create a list of 30 words, phrases and company names commonly found in phishing messages. Assign a point value to each based on your estimate of its likeliness to be in a phishing message (e.g., one point if its somewhat likely, two points if moderately likely, or three points if highly likely). Write a program that scans a file of text for these terms and phrases. For each occurrence of a keyword or phrase within the text file, add the assigned point value to the total points for that word or phrase. For each keyword or phrase found, output one line with the word or phrase, the number of occurrences and the point total. Then show the point total for the entire message. Does your program assign a high point total to some actual phishing e-mails youve received? Does it assign a high point total to some legitimate emails youve received?