Doggone Phishing

Phishing is the practice of sending emails pretending to link to an official internet or banking site when in fact the link is fake the graphics are stolen and it's all just an attempt to con you out of your vital information. And everyone everywhere just keeps sounding the warnings, trying to make people understand that no matter how convincing an email looks, and how dire the situation they tell you your account is in, if you think you're having problem with an online bank or commerce site, go directly to the site by typing the address directly into the address bar at the top of your browser.

For instance, say you get a dire message from eBay, saying someone has hijacked your account and has started putting a big price on some priceless artifacts using your name, DO NOT CLICK on the link provided in the email. Close the browser down, open a new one, and from your home page, simply type EBAY.COM after the WWW in the address bar and click enter.

Only then do you truly know you are at eBay, not eBob, not eRippoff, not eTakeAllYourMoney, but eBay.

There, I said it. Better yet, go to my company, Message Partners, where we have some excellent phish-fighting tools.