Fishing is Good, Phishing is Bad.

I remember when I was a young girl sitting on the banks of Widewaters (the Erie Canal) with my "Nana" and "Ma". I had a bamboo fishing pole, a red bobber, and home-made "sinkers." I never touched the bait or the sunfish or catfish I caught, but I learned how to sit quietly until I caught something.

Fishing takes time, but with the right bait and a little patience, you have dinner! Fishing is good. Phishing (pronounced the same way as fishing)is not so good. It works the same way. The phisher throws out his line ("This is your bank and we need you to verify some information on your account, please enter your user name and password NOW.") and hopes to get a bite. If you bite, he catches you! At the point where they are asking you for your password, alarms should go off. Maybe they SOUND like they are trying to help you, but they are no better than a masked bankrobber!

Banks never send emails regarding passwords. They send you messages through the web page or they disable your web access forcing you to phone them and verify your identity.

If you get a link in an email for your bank, trust me, it's not your bank site. It may look like it, but that is because phishers are so good at that even tech-savy people can be deceived.

I received an email from "Wells Fargo Home Mortgage." I have a Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. However, at no time did I provide Wells Fargo with a personal email address. I wanted to reply, but if I did they would know they reached a valid email address so I deleted without opening it.

That brings me to my tip for the day. Have a money email address. Save this special email address for things like doing taxes, paying bills, shopping online, and any other financial transactions you may have online. Don't give this email address out to your friends. Don't register this email anywhere. Just make it topsecret to you. Oh, and don't make it a hotmail or yahoo email address. Make it a safer account like verizon or comcast or gmail. Have another email address for dangerous sites and public lists. Make a third email address for all your other correspondence needs.

Be the phish that got away! Be safe!