<p>Be careful out there…I got a very realistic-looking email message purportedly from Amazon security people. Once I clicked the link and logged on, it was apparent that it was a hoax—the form asked me to provide my ATM PIN #! Since I’d already used my Amazon password to log in, I immediately changed my Amazon password and called my credit card company. I’d love to have two minutes alone with these characters in a secret prison. Be careful.</p>
<p>Yeah I get the same e-mails from PayPal fakes. They need to make identity theft and credit card fraud a 2nd degree felony. This crap is getting ridiculous. If someone was facing 15-20 years in prison, these crimes wouldn’t be so rampant.</p>
<p>I’m wondering why Driver wants to be interrogated by scam artists in a secret prison. </p>
<p>One of the more, uh, unusual fantasies I’ve encountered.</p>
<p>It wouldn’t be as much fun as maybe it used to be:</p>
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<p>It’s pretty simple, really, if you get messages from your bank, Amazon, PayPal, etc., just login instead of going to the link they provide. Go direct.</p>
<p>Bank of America in Oregon (not BofA in WA) has just gone to an interesting method of identifying themselves. When you go to login and enter the password, they show you an image you picked out–and instruct you NOT to enter the password if you don’t see the image (as you wouldn’t if you got a phishing email). They call it a site key. Interesting idea.</p>
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<p>dmd77 hit it on the head … emails with a link in the email are a huge risk … don’t hit the link; go directly to the webpage and log on.</p>
<p>These emails are “phishing” for people to enter account numbers and passwords. A lot of interent companies have special email account to investigate this possible fake emails. If you receive an official looking email from a internet company DO NOT open the link … and forward the message to <a href="mailto:spoof@company.com">spoof@company.com</a> … this will go to the security folks at the firm who will check out if it real or not … and hopefully be able to track down whoever is sending the fake messages. (This works for paypal and ebay at least)</p>