There is a free excerpt from my book Tame Your Email. Details below this article.

** Dangerous Emails and How to Protect Your Identity by Dan Butler

Let's talk about Phishing emails. A Phishing email is designed
to get you to reveal some of your personal information so other
people can access your accounts or even worse steal your
identity. You have seen these emails - they claim to be from
eBay, PayPal, or some well known bank and ask you to verify some
of your information.

One of my good friends fell for a phishing attempt just last
week. Luckily he had read my book and heard me talk about what
to do so often that he realized his mistake. He quickly logged
in to the real service and changed his log-in information. He
also notified the service so they could check for any activity
that may have occurred on his account.

Here is the bottom line on these type of emails. Remember this
one thing and will be safe 99% of the time. Real Banks and other
financial based institutions do not send you emails asking for
personal information. If you receive an email and just are not
sure then open your web browser and login to your account. Do
this entirely from the web browser and do not click any of the
links in the email. If the institution needs verification of
your identity it will tell you when you login. If you still
aren't sure pick up the phone and give them a call.

Now a few tips. There are three things to remember to avoid
phishing attempts:

• Do not fill in forms contained in an email
• If some institution wants to "verify your information" just
  open your web browser and login to your account. Do *not* click
  the link in the email.
• If you do not have an account with the institution ignore the
  email.

So what should you do if when you receive a phishing email? If
you want to report the email to the institution that is your
choice. In most cases it won't do anything more than add to the
email they are receiving in the first place. But it may make you
feel better. Don't expect a reply from a human.

If you think you have fallen for a phishing scam immediately try
to login to your account. If you are able to login that is a
good. Change your password and double check the personal
information. Make sure updates are set to go to your address -
especially check the email address.

After you update your information contact the institution. By
phone if possible and find out if anything suspicious has
happened.

I receive a lot of these phishing emails but rarely actually see
one in my inbox. The easy spam fighting routine I outline in my
book Tame Your Email catches the phishing emails so I don't have
to.

Follow these simple steps above and avoid getting caught in the
phisherman's net.

--
© 2006 Dan Butler

Dan Butler is the Editor-in-Chief of TNPCNewsletter.com and the
author of the amazing new book that shows you how to save your
identity, get your email read, and put more time into the things
you really enjoy...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tired of fighting identity thieves? Tired of all that junk in
your email box? Want to have your messages seen by the people
that matter? "Tame Your Email" reveals the secrets to taking
control of your inbox while leaving the thieves and spammers
out of sight and out of mind.
http://www.TameYourEmail.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** A Gift for You

I have taken the section on phishing from my book Tame Your
Email and made it available for you for free. All you have to do
is download it here:

You will need the free Adobe Acrobat reader to read the file.

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