Spam and threats is one of the curses of the web age. But if the clogging of mail  with useless emails was bad enough, unsolicited emails aimed at tricking you into giving your valuable passwords, banking and PIN numbers is the most dangerous kind of mail that you will ever encounter. This  email is known as "phishing" because the "smart" authors of these mail are looking for valuable information which they can use to get your online identity.

If you think that you won't be fooled by that kond of  tricks, think again. Phishers commonly send emails which look like they come from respected financial institutions, such as PayPal, Visa Electronic, Ebay, America Online e.t.c. The messages spoof the email address of the institutions and the letters have the proper logos and everything. The email looks like real. The subject of the message usually has a dire warning: "Your Pay Pal Account (PPA) (or Ebay, or online bank account) has been suspended." "Warning: Confirm Your Online Banking Account." These messages look so real, that 5% of recipients open it and respond to them. A big mistake!!
Usually if you have a good amount of money in your PayPal account  or online banking account, you are going to panic when you get email like this. The first thing to do is to stay relaxed and calm.Responsible institutions will never suddenly suspend your account or ask you to give personal information in an insecure manner.

Usually the phishing emails will ask you to enter new information for your "new" account and they will give you urls, asking you to click through and log into your account. The urls in the email will look like the log-in addresses for these institutions, but if you put your mouse over them you will see that the actual web address is different.

If you get any email of this type the second rule, that is very important, is never, never click through and try to log in. If you log in with your username and password, then phishers have captured your password. If you go on to fill out other information such as: bank account numbers, social security number, mother's maiden name or driver's license number then the fraudsters will really have you.


In the end, if you have given any information to fraudulent websites move swiftly to protect yourself.