I was perusing the Dreamhost blog today and laughed and grimaced at the same time, reading an article by Josh Jones, CEO writing about how his wife blindly responded to a phishing email by handing over her credit card and social security numbers.

Oh, and just in case:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“In computing, phishing is a form of criminal activity using social engineering techniques. Phishers attempt to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business in an electronic communication. Phishing is typically carried out using email or an instant message, although phone contact has been used as well[1]”.

Now Mrs Jones aint some half-witted dummy, oh no, she’s a Harvard graduate, so it just goes to show how people can get sucked-in.

I got a fright myself not 2 weeks ago, when I received an email allegedly from ebay, telling me my account had been cancelled due to illegal activity. Right away I became alarmed, believing someone had hijacked my account and was doing terrible things, but a nanosecond later, common sense prevailed and I took myself to ebay under my own steam (NOT through the link in the email) and found that all was well.

So, for the uninitiated and clueless, here’s some tips:

  • No one legitimate is going to write you via email and tell you you’ve won something or become eligible to gain thousands of dollars by helping out a government in hiding (or some similar bullshit)
  • No financial institution will EVER contact you by email and tell you to “click the link” to update your account details (especially if it involves adding credit card/social security numbers)
  • If you must, go to the organisation’s website through your browser (DON’T CLICK THE LINK IN THE EMAIL) and via their contact form, ask whether the email is legitimate.
  • Ring the damn organisation and ask them whether the email is legitimate

oh, and one last thing, don’t put your credit card number in a random email link dammit!

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