No Phishing

Scammers often go "Phishing" for online victims. A Phishing attack arrives in your email looking very official. It will claim to be from a well-known site such as eBay, Citibank, America Online, Bell South, EarthLink, Fleet Bank, Microsoft, Wells Fargo and Yahoo. These emails appear to be a legitimate request: please update the information about your account. When you click on the link in the email, you are taken to a duplicate, but counterfeit, website.

 

According to a report by Gartner 1 in 5, or 57 million Americans, received a Phishing email last year. Of the 4 million people who opened online accounts, almost half said they were also the target of Phishing. Even worse, almost 2 million people gave away their private financial records at the bogus websites.

 

Memo to self: Banks and retailers do NOT need to ask for your financial data. If their databases are so poor that they need to ask ME for an account number, then it is time to get another bank.

 

If I have a problem with my financial accounts, Dorothy, the branch manager, calls me personally.

 

Many people receive security warnings supposedly from Microsoft. In all of the years I have worked with Microsoft, they never, ever, ever sent the Computer Mama an email asking for anything.