Still Phishing After All These Years

This post originally ran back on June 22, 2008. The point was to let you all know that phishing is still a prevalent scam. Sadly though phishing hasn't decreased. It's gotten worse and know this type of imposter scam has spread to text messaging and telephone forms. Beware of anyone claiming to contact you from any company that you have a financial relationship with. No company that you do business with will ask for your account number, passwords or PINs by contacting you. They only ask for this info when you contact them.

WHEN IN DOUBT, DON'T GIVE IT OUT

Check out this email message from PayPal.

Yep, it's a fake. But you can safely click on these images. I captured them from an actual message that showed up in my email box yesterday morning. Get a look at how realistic this bait is. But then there's that tricky "Dispute" link.

I decided to click the link. But Internet Explorer picked up the phony. If the link were to work it would likely ask me for personal information like my PayPal login and credit card or account info.

Really, I'm am surprised that phishing is still so popular. Yet it must be lucrative since it's still going on. This particular message looks quite authentic. And since I hadn't made the noted purchase I might have actually fallen for the the "Dispute". But I'm not at all trusting of email that I didn't initiate and you shouldn't be either. Consider this a reminder--be suspicious.

Phishers are getting more sophisticated, but you can outwit them. And if you do encounter a phishing bait notify the Anti-Phishing Workgroup.