Some people like phishing...

...As for me, I hate it.

Okay, all I have to say is that I had the dubious privilege today of being phished. I have an email account that I have used nearly every day for almost three years and I can count the number of spam emails I've received on one hand with some fingers missing. But today, I had my first encounter with phishing. For those of you who don't know what phishing is, it is basically when lowlifes send you email pretending to be from a reputable company (eBay in my case). They will tell you some story about how they have gone through a server migration or some other maintenance and they need you to click on a link and re-enter your account information "just to confirm their records." NEVER FALL FOR THIS! Your bank, or eBay, or whatever other company should keep backup records and will NEVER email you asking for "account confirmation." The only time they ever ask for account confirmation is when you just barely set up the account, and even then, any good company will not ask you to re-enter your account data. Also, a way to detect a phish is when you open the email and mouse over the link, notice the address that it points to. More often than not, it will point to some obscure IP address that has nothing to do with the actual company you do business with.

Due to the insidiousness and ingenuity of the phishers, I can see how this can turn into a very disastrous thing for those not educated to recognize phishes. Fortunately, there are tools out there to help educate people to the dangers of Internet predators. For instance, America First Credit Union has a great page devoted to helping members recognize and avoid phishing scams. Some people might say, "Well, I installed this anti-phish software. I'm safe." I say, "No you're not." The software is fallable and won't always stop threats. We can't just install some technology and then go bounding around the Internet with reckless abandon. We all need to be well educated about things around us. You don't see deer in the meadow just bounding around with "reckless abandon" just because there are trees around the meadow. No, they carefully make their way into the meadow and are constantly on the lookout for potential threats. Hopefully we can be smarter than deer.

I'm sorry for jumping up on my soapbox like that. I know that I'm probably preaching to the choir, but I deal with really stupid people all the time and with the average intelligence level of the Homo Sapiens, it's a wonder anything works in the first place. People are just stupid. They think that it's someone else's job to think for them and to protect them. They think, "Well, I have an IT department at work to take care of my computer for me. I'll be all right here at home, too." Gaaaah! That's so freaking frustrating! It's people's stupidity and ignorance that cause a general slowdown of society, complete with a lack of ingenuity for new stuff at no extra charge. Everyone who would normally be dreaming up the next big thing is stuck here dealing with stupid people's problems.

Anyhow, I'm done ranting. Just be careful of phishing scams. Be educated; know how to recognize them; know what you can do to protect yourself, and the world will be a bit smoother. You don't have to be computer experts, just educated.

ps: Try some Chai tea. It's really good and it's good for you. Word of Wisdom safe, too!
pps: Sorry about the excessively long post. I'll make it up with some short ones. :)