Be Safe & Smart Online: Watch Out For Phishing Schemes!
Author: Susan, Editor

Phishing schemes are the most notorious and dangerous type of online-scams! (Pronounced 'fishing')

If you receive an email that looks like it is from your bank, PayPal, eBay, Social networks, or an online account, it is best "not" to open it. If you feel that you must open the email, do "not" reply to it, do "not" click on any link in the email and by all means, do "not" open any attachment! Instead, go to your account's web site ("without" clicking on a link in the email) and use the web site's contact form. Copy and paste the email into the contact form and ask your service if it is from them.

NEVER give your passwords to anyone!

Watch out for emails that have phrases like the following.
(Dashes --- signify an account name like PayPal, eBay, your bank name, social networks, etc.):

** --- Account Alert
** --- Account Incident
** --- Account Issue
** --- Account Renew
** --- Account Review
** --- Account Suspended
** Avoid your --- suspension
** Bank Draft Confirmed
** Bank Draft Worth...
** Confirm on receiving
** Check your account
** Confirm that you are the real owner of --- account
** Confirm that you have sent an eBay payment
** Confirm your --- account
** --- Email ID ---
** Facebook (or other name) Password Reset Confirmation
** Last notice about your cable provider
** New login system
** New security requirements
** Notification of Limited Account Access
** Notification of Unclaimed Parcel
** Password Change Required
** Password Reset Confirmation
** PayPal Notification: ---
** Please Update your account to avoid suspension
** Protect your --- account
** Question from ---- member
** Re: Dear --------
** Re: Important
** Re: Urgent
** Reactivate your ---- account
** Reconfirm payment (or payment option)
** Restore your account access
** Second (third) notification
** The Security of your account
** Unauthorized access report
** Unauthorized account access
** Update your --- account
** Urgent (and similar expressions)
** Verify your --- account
** Warning - Your email account will be closed
** Your account might be compromised
** Your account access has been limited
** Your account has been violated
** You have successfully updated your password
** Your IP was marked
** Your credit/debit card information must be updated
** Your email requires verification
** Your profile has been updated
And any similar wordings.

These types of Phishing schemes can be very dangerous. The inappropriate senders of these emails will take your account information, your credit card information, and take your identity. Phishing, this type of scheme, is one of the most dangerous forms of scams.

www.IdentityProtection101.com suggests the following:

1. No legitimate company would ever ask you to provide your personal information or your account information.
2. View the link in the email. For example, PayPal will always read: https:// (notice the "s").
3. Be wary of e-mails that contain misspelled words, incomplete sentences, and awkward phrases.
4. Don't give your personal information to anyone unless you trust them and have initiated the contact yourself via a telephone number or web address that you know to be valid.
http://www.identityprotection101.com/phishing

Dictionary.com defines:
Phishing: "A method of identity theft carried out through the creation of a website that seems to represent a legitimate company. The visitors to the site, thinking they are buying something from a real business, submit their personal information to the site. The criminals then use the personal information for their own purposes, or sell the information to other criminal parties."

Investopedia Commentary: "A classic example of phishing is an identity thief setting up a website that looks like it belongs to a major bank. Then, that thief sends out many emails that claim to be from the major bank and request the email recipients to input their personal banking information (such as their PIN) into the website so the bank may update their records. Once the scammer gets a hold of the needed personal information, they attempt to access the victim's bank account."

Related Articles on Phishing and Identity Theft:
Identity Theft: How To Avoid It http://www.investopedia.com/articles/pf/05/051805.asp
Investment Scams Tutorial http://www.investopedia.com/university/scams/

Always Be Safe Online!

Thanks for reading,
Susan, at Vector Central Marketing
http://www.vectorcentral.com

Copyright©Vector Central Marketing

Click Here for Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware Resources.

How To Get Started With Social Bookmarking
Author: ©Frank Breinling

You've heard so many good things about social bookmarking, you can probably hardly wait to get started with this great service. It's very easy to get into social bookmarking and will only take up a little bit of your time to set it up.

Signing Up For Your Account

The first thing you do is set up your account and install the button on your toolbar. You have a choice of different bookmarking sites to choose from. Some people start off with just one while others sign up for several different sites to see which one they like best. Now that your account is all set up, you can begin searching the internet for all your favorite websites you've wanted to save and share. Once you get to the website you want to save all you do is click the button.

When you click the button, you either'll get a small popup window or be taken to their site where they'll ask a question or two regarding the website you're trying to save. The information may already be filled out for you depending on the site. You'll be asked to provide a tag, which is similar to a keyword.

Tags

The tag is how your friends will find your link. You have your choice of using one tag or several tags, which will make finding your links even easier. For instance, if you're on a website about the Minnesota Vikings, you tag may be "football" and "vikings". By using more than one tag, your site can be found in more than one way.

Some social bookmarking sites use a "tag cloud", which is a list of different tags and the most popular ones are in bolder and larger fonts than the not so popular ones. Tag clouds make it easy for you and others to quickly find the most popular bookmarks.

Finding Websites Left by Others You've just learned how easy it is to set up a social bookmarking account and share your websites with others by using tags. What many don't realize is that social bookmarking is also great for helping you to see what others have that might interest you.

The internet is a huge place with well over 30 billion different web pages. If you had to go through all of them to find what you want, this would probably take much more time than you have! Social bookmarking makes it easy. Suppose you were interested in reading a good book. You'd ask other people their opinion and rely on their recommendations. This is also what you do with social bookmarking sites.

All you have to do is type in what you're looking for and the most current and popular articles and websites will pop up for you. You searching has been drastically reduced. If you find that a particular user has repeatedly submitted stuff that interests you, you may want to add them as a friend. Making friends is a popular part of social bookmarking sites and is a great way to share your interests with others.