Phishing scams

Next up in email scams to protect yourself from is Phishing

Clay Douglass

http://www.onguardonline.gov/topics/email-scams.aspx#2

2. Phishing
The Bait: Email or pop-up messages that claim to be from a business or organization you may deal with – say, an Internet Service Provider (ISP), bank, online payment service, or even a government agency. The message may ask you to "update," "validate," or "confirm" your account information or face dire consequences.
The Catch: Phishing is a scam where internet fraudsters send spam or pop-up messages to reel in personal and financial information from unsuspecting victims. The messages direct you to a website that looks just like a legitimate organization's site, or to a phone number purporting to be real. But these are bogus and exist simply to trick you into divulging your personal information so the operators can steal it, fake your identity, and run up bills or commit crimes in your name.
Your Safety Net: Make it a policy never to respond to emails or pop-ups that ask for your personal or financial information, click on links in the message, or call phone numbers given in the message. Don't cut and paste a link from the message into your Web browser, either: phishers can make links look like they go one place, but then actually take you to a look-alike site. If you are concerned about your account, contact the organization using a phone number you know to be genuine, or open a new internet browser session and type in the company's correct Web address yourself. Using anti-virus and anti-spyware software and a firewall, and keeping them up to date, can help.
Forward phishing emails to spam@uce.gov and to the organization that is being spoofed.