Before we begin let me tell you what Phishing is. Phishing is a way to acquire an individual's personal information to gain access to their accounts. This is normally done by sending out an email asking you to change some type of information by giving the individual a link to a site that looks like the intended site that the user is familiar with.

So how is it used?

A year ago I almost became a victim of phishing. One day I was out of town and I was checking my email when I got an email from Ebay stating if I didn't change some of my information that my account would be closed.

Little did I know that the email was not from Ebay and the link that I clicked was from another site posing as Ebay storefront. When I realized what I had done I went back and opened another browser and typed in the URL ebay.com and changed my information before any changes could be made.

I was the lucky one but many others who have become victims to phishing are not so fortunate.

Prevention?

If you ever get an email from any type of financial institution or company because of some change never click the link they provide. (This is even if it is from the real company.) Why ? For one reason. You will get in the habit of opening a window and typing in the direct URL of that company for example ebay.com

It's better to be safe then sorry.

If your doing your taxes you may have already head on the news that good old George Bush will be sending rebates to tax payers to stimulate the economy.

I just read an article from the yahoo news under finance.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080130/irs_scams.html?.v=1&.pf=taxes

This article talks about how phishers are using the rebate as a way to get people to submit personal information.

Just a rule like in my previous module never give personal information.