5 tips to avoid phishing scams Phishing (fishing) refers to scams and cons where people are persuaded into providing personal information such as identity (name, address, d.o.b. etc) and other details (passwords, credit card numbers). (1) Any email or web site proposition that seems to be too good to be true - probably is. Be very wary, this is the first indication of a phishing scam - the intention here is to 'hook' you into trading your information for the 'reward' described. (2) Phishing email scams often have mis-spellings - though this is becoming less and less common - the scammers have clearly discovered spell checkers. (3) These type of scams often urge you too to act immediately - a 'call to action' comes across as an imperative to try and make you act there and then without thinking that this "is too good to be true". (4) Banks, Paypal, online stores, etc NEVER ask you to provide personal details in an email or reply with 'PIN' or 'Password' information. And they never send emails with a link to click to verify password details or other information on a web site page. Don't click these links in emails. Some of the emails you will receive can look very convincing, but these are always FAKE. Don't click links like these. (5) As a general rule don't share any personal information by email or insecure websites (those that do not have their URL prefaced with https - the 's' on the end is the important part - showing traffic is encrypted between browser and web site | 
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