The Attack of the Big Phish
Mon Sep 25, 2006 9:52AM EDT
Gina Hughes: The Techie Diva

Are you familiar with phishing scams? I get several in my inbox every day, and I bet you do too.

Phishing is a one of the fastest-growing cybercrimes, according to the FBI, and one that costs consumers millions of dollars each year. These scams have one purpose: to get as much personal information from a user as possible. This includes login information, Social Security numbers, date of birth, and other identifiable information that can help scammers open up bogus accounts under your name or steal from your existing ones.

You can identify a phishing scam by its urgent tone asking you to immediately update your account. There are many other telltale signs, which I'll cover later, but the smartest thing you can do is to resist the temptation of opening this dangerous email and instead delete the bait immediately.

Read more at the Yahoo Tech Blog