From TNPC for June 08 2006

** More on Phishing

A couple of you pointed out the irony of having asking you to
send me your address for the drawing then telling you not to
respond to requests for personal information in email. That did
slip by me - but - the advice is to ignore requests for personal
information from people you don't know and to contact the bank
or other institution directly instead of responding to an email.

Leslie sent this story that relates phishing to offline
activities:

phishing is a big problem on the web, but can be
on the phone as well!

I had someone call me claiming to be Sears Credit
calling to verify my charge card information with
them. Fortunately I did not have such a card and
was suspicious from the get go, but, I was half
asleep at the time and thought they were the real
deal. I was convinced someone who knew me was
trying to get credit in my name or some such. So
later in the day I called Sears and reported the
call and attempted to verify none of my personal
information had been used to setup such a card.

Every once in a while I will make a purchase with
my bank card that for whatever reason triggers
their fraud alert to prompt them to call and
verify I made the purchase. But the way card
services makes the call, I can see where someone
could easily fall for the scam, and give out their
info to some phisher. I know this, so I always
look up my bank's card services number and call
them back that way instead of just calling the
number left on the machine. I have told them that
their technique could easily lead people into
phishing scams, but since it has been a while
since they have called me I do not know if they
have worked out a better policy.

Les

If you use Online Banking a good thing to do is call and try to
get your password changed. Pay attention to how easy or
difficult this is to do. Be sure to tell them you don't remember
you login id. Sometimes you will find it surprisingly simple and
that should bother you. Think about how easy it would be for
someone with just one of your checks to call up and get logged
in. If it is too easy write up your experience and let the bank
know.

Note: Do not try this if you absolutely need online access to
your account for the next week or two. It is possible that you
will come across as suspicious and get your online account
access locked.

And this from Frank in Texas:

Dan,

Speaking as someone who just fell for a phishing
email, despite my confidence in my supposed good
sense and computer experience: maybe add another
principle to your good advice -- "Don't do
internet banking when you're tired." I was worn
out, shoving myself through a set of end-of-the-
day chores, and in came the email masked like my
credit union; I thought, "I'll just do this
now, and not procrastinate," and two minutes later
realized what I'd done. I sealed off the problem
without damage, but I was lucky. A bit tireder and
I would have had a huge pile of trouble.

~Frank

And there are plenty more like that. Frank's experience shows
how it only takes one slip. When your spam filter is working
well you won't see many phishing emails. The best spam filters
today are Bayesian based. The best of these are free in my
opinion.

--
© 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/

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