If you blog, and have a donate button or a “tip jar”, chances are you are using PayPal as the “collection service”.

Today’s Lesson

I have been receiving emails from what looks to be PayPal.

Some say I need to update my account. Others say, if I don’t “take action”, my account will be terminated.

A link if provided to what looks like could be PayPal.

Because I am aware of phishing, I avoid clicking on the link, and logged into my PayPal account. My account was intact and no update or action was needed on my part.

I delete the emails.

Today, I received a similar email. I again believed to be a phishing email.

I logged into my PayPal account and found an area on PayPal’s site, where a person can “report” possible phishing emails.

It’s really quite easy. All you do is forward the email to: spoof@paypal.com and PayPal will check into it. They advise you to then delete the email.

Shortly thereafter, spoof@paypa.ciom, sent me a response, via email, stating that it was, in fact, a phishing email and their security team is working to disable it.

Phishing emails are an attempt of others who are trying to steal your identity. These “people” hope you will give them personal data, passwords, or other information that could help them to not only steal your identity, but to gain access to your financial records.

Ian, a cyberspace friend, and owner of Multi Solutions, Ltd, , wrote a great post on phishing, titled: Small Business IT Threats – Phishing Fraud Investigated and how one of his colleagues “took the bait”. It’s a great read with an interesting twist, at the end.

Today’s Assignment

Do you ever get emails from PayPal or Amazon, that you think may be legitimate, but aren’t sure?

What do you do?

Click on the link provided?