Phishing Internet Scam Alert

Recently had something interesting happen. I received an e-mail, apparently from Pay Pal. The e-mail looked legitimate, just like a pay pal email would look. The e-mail asked for an update on my account information, when I clicked on the link to do this a window opened up with a pay pal url in the above address. Everything about the page still looked legitimate including the address in my url bar, so I proceeded to fill out the form. The bad news is that it wasn't a legitimate form request from Pay Pal at all, instead it was a hacker pretending to be pay pal in an attempt to get my personal and credit card information. Fortunately, my McAfee firewall caught the intrustion, reported it to me immediately, and stopped it's (and me) action immediately. This kind of intrusion, one of the latest of many internet scams, is known as "phishing" because scammers are trying to reel you in, just like a hooked fish. The Federal Trade Commission has some good information on this scam at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/phishingalrt.htm that we recommend you visit soon. In short, scammers send you an email or initiate a pop up claiming to be from a legitimate company such as pay pal or citibank. What makes this scam so deceptive is that you will see a pay pal or citibank url in your address bar making you think that you really are getting a message from them directly. In fact, you are not at the pay pal or citibank web site at all, the scammers are using a deceptive technology to make it appear so. How can you protect yourself from such scams? First, we reccomend you read the FTC Tips on avoiding this scam, and second, install a good firewall and virus scan combination program like the one offered by McAffee that we use. Protection is reasonable priced these days and a must for those who like to surf the internet.