I have gotten my share of email spam and phishing messages, but this is a new one for me. Yesterday I had this Skype message pop up. I had to do a double-take to make sure it wasn’t something that was real. At the bottom of the message was a link that went to a phishing site.
Tech criminals are becoming more creative. I can understand how the inexperienced can fall for some of these gimmicks.
![Serious Corgi [493/1000]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7090/7155443722_7a0a01e683_t.jpg "Serious Corgi [493/1000]")
![Miss Holman's Wedding [18/52]](http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8008/7152073799_fcee9b0723_t.jpg "Miss Holman's Wedding [18/52]")
My wife, who is an avid user of Paypal and Ebay and me who uses on line banking and sources like that are constantly bombarded with phishing tactics. Is this stuff illegal, or is it open game on the internet? This may sound like a naive question, but inquiring minds want to know. Can you advise Alvin?
This sort of thing is illegal in the US. Most of the links are to sites in other countries. The best thing to do is doubt all incoming requests for personal information.
Just last week I ordered something from Amazon. It shipped. I got the tracking number. The next day I received an email saying there was something wrong with the processing of my Amazon payment. I checked the tracking number and my package was half way to my house. I went back and checked the email. The order number was different and it was addressed to a different email account than the one I used to make the purchase. I happened to get a phishing message right after I ordered something. Dumb luck. At any rate, it didn’t work because I was doubted it.