The Dark Side

"Luke... I am your father..." *strange hissing noises here*

Yes, I've been the target of phising before. Have I ever fallen for it? Nope. At least not that I know of... yet. I have recieved those emails asking me to update my account or my bank facts and figures. Odd thing really, but most of the time I don't have an account with that website or have any transactions with that bank. So those are pretty easy to spot.

I've also noticed that most of those banking sites have this little button you can push to notify them when someone is trying to use their system or name in a phising scam. Simply push button, forward the email, and know that their lawyers are using your information, plus that of others, to hunt down and stop the scam. It just gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside.

I've also gotten emails telling me sob stories about how they aren't a U.S. citizen and they'd like to use my bank account to get their money into the country. Or that I've inherited money from some rich relative and all I have to do is give them my account information. Sorry folks, but I'm not falling for it. You want to get your money into the U.S.? - get a cashier's check or go to a money exchange. Rich relative? - Yeah, right, I've never heard of them, but they love me enough to leave me an inheritance. Get their lawyer to call mine.

Call me skeptical, but most of the time, if I don't know the person that email is from, I won't even open it to see what they want from me. Nowadays, it's just not worth my time and effort.

The one GOOD thing about those advertisements you get - Sometimes they have really funny titles. Like the one time I got an email from the "ball man." I laughed and just had to find out, so I did bother opening the email - it was someone selling monogrammed and personalized golf balls. I laughed harder.