It's often extremely difficult even for experts to distinguish between a
slick scam and authenticity. Your best protection, therefore, is caution--and
following these five simple rules. That said, here are some telltale signs of a
phishing scam:
Requests for personal information in an e-mail
message. Most legitimate businesses will not ask for personal
information in e-mail.
Alarmist messages Criminals attempt to create a
sense of urgency so you'll respond without thinking.
Misspellings and grammatical errors
A slightly altered Web address. Only close scrutiny
would reveal the deceptive spelling. For example, www.microsoft.com could
appear as www.micosoft.com, www.mircosoft.com or
www.mIcrosoft.com.
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. In
particular, don't be fooled by an e-mail hoax promising easy money. Learn how to spot and avoid this
kind of fraud.
Trust the MSN butterfly
Official e-mail to Hotmail members from Microsoft Online Services always
arrives with a butterfly (as shown below). Although a scam artist can add a
butterfly to the email message itself, only Microsoft Online Services can put a
butterfly icon in this location.
Tip Some companies, including ISPs, provide toolbars that
can help you determine whether a site is a fake or not. One such toolbar is
available from CoreStreet.
