Gone Phishing

It never ceases to amaze me how some people can turn something good into something so bad or dangerous. I am reminded of this as I sort through my e-mail and diligently report any phishing attemps (as well as any other spam (try Spamcop) Phishing in e-mail? What does that mean? What can I catch? How do I do it?

Well, to make sure no one has the wrong impression, I am not going to tell you how to phish. Regardless of the expression about giving someone a fish versus teaching them to fish, I'm not going to help you commit identity theft. That's right, identity theft. You seen, phishing is a technique for trying to steal someone's private or confidential information. It's much like an on-line con-game.

The way phishing normally works is you receive an e-mail from someone that claims to be from a company that you do business with. Often these e-mail messages are along the lines of "There is someting wrong with your accout." And an apparent link to the company's website. In fact the link is a forgery and takes you to a web site thas has been copied to look like the one you think you are going to. At that imposter website, they generally ask for confidential information such as your social security number, account name and password, etc. With that information they can then impersonate you and potentially rob you blind.

Please be very careful when clicking on links in an e-mail and revealing sensitive information. See Phishing at Wikipedia. Don't be a phish!

-tl