Gone Phishing

People have been catching fish for centuries, mainly because their stupid. – Fish, not people. – You fool them by putting a lure in the water that reminds them of something the like to eat and they chomp down. – I think we’re still talking about fish.

The internet is like a pond and we are the fish.

Phishing is a term used to describe online con artists. They disguise themselves as things you recognize like your bank, or eBay, or whatever. The idea is to lull you into a false sense of security and then steal your personal information. Name, birthdate, social security, credit card, songs you sing in the shower, mothers maiden name,… pretty much all your information.

So how do you keep yourself out of the frying pan? Here are a few tips that just might some day save the day.

A normal address should have a familiar name with a .com or a .net or a .somthing you recognize and then immediately after there should be the first “/” (slash) in the address. What ever shows up just before the “/” is the website you are really going to.

Check out this bogus email I got. They want me to “Confirm my account details.” They’re lying to me. The link looks okay but you can never trust a link. Never trust a link. They are evil.

So what do you do? If you’re in an email program, roll over the link and wait. Ta-Da! There si the real link that they were tring to sent you to. Now look for the /. So this is really going to “fe.r4you.at”… which is my favorite site.

The best way to avoid trouble is this: If it involves your personal information never click on an email link. Go to the site and type it in yourself. If a business really does need more information from you for a legitimate reason, virtually all of them will remind you when you log in to the sites main page.

Oh, and if you do ever run across a phishing scam be sure to tatle tail and tell the company they are impersonating. Big sites like eBay and others take it very seriously… and they have lawyers. Lots and lots of lawyers.

Well, that’s about it. Just remember, if things look funny slow down and check it out before you start typing. You may be a guppy, but you can still survive. Mighty Guppy!

I had a guppy jump out of the bowel once. It died… Not you. Another guppy.

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