I think we've all been getting those fake emails. The
tip off is that they want you to enter in personal
information (one from EBAYADMIN wanted my bank card
and Pin #...I mean do they think we're that stupid?)
Anyhow, appearances can be decieving. It doesn't take
a lot of work for a mediocre programmer to put
together an email that LOOKs like it's from ebay or
your credit company or your banking institution and
says "Check your account by clicking here" and then
re-direct you to a fake site which looks like the real
thing, but when you enter in user and password
information it just dumps the info to a text file on
someone's computer half way around the world.
A better programmer could even have it then re-direct
you to the real web page and give you the "you
misentered your password" message, so it will be
seamless and you'll just think you mistyped a key. But
in fact you just handed over your user and password
info.
Pay attention to the address they are sending you too,
or better yet. Just READ the emails, and if one of
your service providers wants you to do something on
line, open a window and go to their address directly
by typing in the URL you KNOW takes you there. Don't
click on the email links at all. Better to be safe
then sorry.
And I know 99.9% of you know this, but also make sure
you have the "lock" in the right hand corner when
entering ANY information.
-Terry
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