Spam was once just clutter in your inbox; now it is a commonly used vehicle for fraud, electronic crime and even corporate espionage. The 4 Ws of spam answer the most commonly asked questions about spam.

What is Spam?

Spam, also called junk email, is generally defined in the Internet industry as unsolicited commercial email (UCE). It is email that is sent out in bulk to a huge number of recipients who did not request it. The contents of spam range from benign advertising to malicious programs that can literally hijack your computer system do grave damage.

The most common commercial spam advertises pyramid schemes, pornographic web sites, mortgage loans, chain letters, credit repair, fraudulent pharmaceuticals and illegally pirated software. The more dangerous spam will often contain viruses that can infect your computer, Trojan horses that can hijack your email program and use it to send out spam to your friends and family, and phishing scams that attempt to get your personal and financial information.

Who Spams?

“Spammer” is the term used to refer to those responsible for spam. In the Spam world, there are two types of spammers. There are the honest spammers who comply with the anti-spam laws, and have the consent of the spam recipients. These willing recipients usually join the honest spammer’s “opt-in” mailing list by signing up at a website, for example to enter a lottery, or to be notified of future promotions.
Then there are the dishonest spammers, who will get your email addresses by any means possible. They use their spam for criminal or malicious purposes and have zero regard for the law.
Spammers range from the lone, home-based individual to multi-million dollar companies with several employees. Most of the spam companies are increasingly relocating to offshore locations to evade US laws and law enforcement.

Sometimes the most important aspects of a subject are not immediately obvious. Keep reading to get the complete picture.

Where do the Spammers Get your Email Address From?

Spammers get their victim’s email addresses from just about anywhere you can imagine. Primarily, they use Newsgroup harvesters and Spambots, which are automated programs designed to “harvest” (extract) email addresses from online sites. Newsgroup harvesters target newsgroup postings and other unprotected web-based forums, which tend to have low security. Spambots troll the Internet, scanning websites and “harvesting” (extracting) email addresses. It typically searches for the “@” sign that denotes an email address.

The average spambot can harvest over 30,000 email addresses in just one hour. And this goes on 24/7, year and year out.
There are also companies that sell CDs that are packed with valid email addresses. These can sell for as little as $25, and they are a goldmine for any spammer.

Why do Spammers Spam?

In a word? Money. Spammers literally make millions from their illicit trade. Studies show that for every million junk emails sent out, a spammer will average about 100 sales. Add to this the fact that they make $50-$100 in commission for each sale, and you can see how the numbers add up to incomes in excess of $100,000 a year! What’s more, spamming can cost next to nothing.

But why does spamming continue despite its cost in time, effort and money? Because there are people out there who respond to spam. Even with a minimal response rate of one sale from every 10,000 emails, it can be highly profitable. If no one responded to spam, the spammer’s cash cow would starve and the practice would end. It is these few who keep the spammers in business. They make the cost of spamming worthwhile.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, proud owner of this top ranked web hosting reseller site: GVO

Whitelists are quite possibly the single most effective form of spam protection available on the market today. They are as close as you can get to totally eliminating spam from your inbox.

A whitelist is a database of trusted email addresses, IP addresses and domains. To build the list, each one of these trusted sources is manually added to the whitelist. Only email from a whitelisted source is delivered to the user’s inbox. In fact, whitelists are so effective, that the catch-rate for spam is almost 100%.

However, the efficiency of whitelists comes at a price, because it produces a large number of false positives. This means that a lot of legitimate email goes undelivered. To deal with this problem, a challenge-response technique is often instituted.

When an email from an unknown source is received, the system will respond automatically, sending a “challenge” back to the sender. This challenge may require the sender to answer certain questions, or decipher an image that displays a series of letters and numbers. This image can only be deciphered by a human, and not by spamming software. Once this is successfully done, the email is allowed to go through the system to the inbox. The sender is also added to the whitelist. The challenge-response methodology uses a combination of human judgment and software technology to determine which email to let through and which to block.

Think about what you’ve read so far. Does it reinforce what you already know about Spam Protection? Or was there something completely new? What about the remaining paragraphs?

The advantage of this method is that it is not worth it to spammers to wade through all the challenge-response emails and respond to them. They are more likely to remove the email address from their lists and go after other addresses that do not have such requirements. However, the inconvenience of having to register to send email to the whitelist user may discourage legitimate email senders from following through.

Another impractical aspect of whitelists arises when the email account user places an online order, registers for a newsletter or other service. Each of these new email sources must be manually added to the white list. If the user forgets to do this, or enters it incorrectly, important email may be blocked.

Whitelists are far more effective than anti-spam filters, because the latter work by calculating the probability that if an email contains particular words, it is likely to be spam. However, spammers easily get around this feature simply by misspelling words, or by avoiding words associated with spam. For this reason, spam filters are usually only 80-90% successful. This may be acceptable on a personal account, but not on a business account that likely receives over a hundred emails a day.

Whitelists are especially beneficial to businesses as they almost totally eliminate the waste of valuable time that would otherwise be spent wading through the hundreds of spam that are received each day. However, despite their effectiveness in blocking spam, whitelists have not gained widespread use because of the high rate of false positives. It is also virtually impossible for businesses to compile an exhaustive whitelist database of trusted email sources.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

It is virtually impossible to avoid having your email address end up on a spammer’s mailing list. You can, however, take steps to minimize the amount of spam that you receive. Here are to top five:

Address Munging

Never, ever post your permanent email address publicly online. Posting it on a website, on USENET, or in a guest book, for example, virtually guarantees that it will end up on a spammer’s emailing list.

If you absolutely have to supply an address, or regularly participate in online forums but do not want further communication, camouflage your address in some way. You can, for example, disguise your address by writing it in such a way that humans can read it, but the spammers automated programs cannot.

Example: instead of JaneDoe@ISP.com, add a blank space before and after the “@” sign, or use characters e.g. JaneDoe at ISP dot com.

This is reffered to as “address munging”. While address munging does not allow for a regular, clickable email link, anyone who really wants to contact you will figure it out the proper address.

If you have a website, provide a feedback form instead of giving your email address.

Sign up for an Alternative Email Addresses

Do not use your primary email address when placing an online order, getting a free download, or want to sign up for a newsletter or free service Get a secondary email address that you can use in these instances. You can open a free email account for this purpose. Email providers such as GMail and yahoo offer this free email service.

Knowledge can give you a real advantage. To make sure you’re fully informed about Spam Protection, keep reading.

Reserve this email address specifically for this online activity – do not offer it to people from whom you want to receive email, as this will likely be lost in the deluge of junk mail.

Also, be sure to log into this account on a regular basis to delete the junk mail and avoid having the account closed. If you get over-spammed, just close this account and open a new one.

Choose an email address that cannot be easily guessed at. One method used by spammers to get email address is to generate a list of likely email addresses based on a combination of first names, last names and commonly used words. They may, for example build an emailing list that has variations of an address like JoelDoe1@hotmail.com, JoelDoe2@hotmail.com etc.
You can foil this spammer’s tactic by using a relatively long email address, for example 8 or more characters long. You should also avoid choosing email addresses that include either of your names. Use your initials instead, in combination with numbers, e.g. jtd1509@yahoo.com.

Beware the Phisher Spam

Phishing is a tactic used by spammers to scam you into giving up vital personal and financial information. Its sole purpose is identity theft.

Never divulge any personal or financial information that is requested in an email. Your bank or credit card company would never ask you to confirm or update your personal information via an email or a link in an email. Any such emails should be reported to the bank or credit card company. Never, ever click on any links in this type of spam.

Get a spam filter or spam blocker

Stop the spam dead in its tracks before it ever makes it into your inbox. Well, most of it at least. Though they are not 100% effective, anti-spam software will keep most of it out. Even if you only use the internet a spam filter will help protect you from spam.

Now that wasn’t hard at all, was it? And you’ve earned a wealth of knowledge, just from taking some time to study an expert’s word on Spam Protection.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

Today, the Internet is reminiscent of the wildest days of the Wild, Wild, West. Your stagecoach through the World Wide Web can be hijacked at any instant if you have no knight in firewall armor to ward off any viral intruders. When your computer is connected to the internet with no firewall running, it is vulnerable to attack from spammers, hackers and phishers.

Much like human viruses, computer viruses run the gamut from the benign to the fatally destructive to the computers they infect. And just as with human viruses, prevention is better than cure. Prevention begins by stopping them in their tracks at the portals of contact. This is where a firewall can come in handy.

An anti-spam firewall application will, to an extent, help in keeping viruses at bay. There is, however, no firewall that is 100% hacker proof – there are too many ways in which viruses can be embedded in a software download or regular data, for a firewall to detect and catch them all. However there are some relatively effective firewall programs available on the market, and some of them are actually free for your personal use.

The best time to learn about Spam Protection is before you’re in the thick of things. Wise readers will keep reading to earn some valuable Spam Protection experience while it’s still free.

At the bare minimum a home personal computer that is connected to a cable modem or a full time connection needs to have and run a personal firewall software program, as well as anti-spyware and some type of anti-viral program.

The ideal firewall will hide the ports that a hacker might use to gain access to your PC and protect your home PC from attacks, as well as track those attempted entries and prohibit unauthorized access or output from your computer. Two-way firewalls are the best as they block the threats that are incoming OR outgoing, to prevent things such s virus, Trojans or malware from being installed without you knowing it.

Windows XP, as well as the new Vista have a personal firewall built into the operating system that is by default turned on. Because it monitors and offers popup warnings many people turn it off, and leave themselves remarkably vulnerable to attack. The Windows firewall default of “on” should be maintained until and unless you find another software or hardware firewall to protect your system.

Some good freeware anti-viral and firewall software programs are available, such as Zone Alarm and Zone Alarm Pro. AVG also comes in a free as well as a pro version.Neither of these programs comes with adware attached and they are very good solutions to begin to address your internet security.

You will need good anti-virus programs to go after any viruses that may inevitably bypass your firewall. It should be programmed to either quarantine or, preferably, destroy them. Last but certainly not least, it is essential to always keep your anti-viral and firewall programs up to date with the newest patches and security updates. Most viruses target your C: drive, so scan it daily. And never, ever open any unsolicited emails or the attachments that come with them.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

It has become increasingly common for spam to contain malicious programs or software that can be harmful to both your computer. The purpose of these small, malicious is to perform unauthorized, usually harmful, actions, when they self-install into your computer system, and infect your programs and files. They are commonly spread by e-mail, in the form of cleverly disguised attachments that trick you into clicking on them.

The most common of these programs are: Viruses, Trojan Horses, Malware and Adware. Knowing what they are and how they work will help you better protect yourself from malicious spam.

Viruses

A is a computer program that is specifically created to replicate itself and to infect a computer system without permission or even knowledge of the user. Viruses come in several varieties including:

The Boot Sector Virus

This virus will infect the root-most part of your computer hard drive, called the boot sector. This is what is used to start up your computer.

This type virus can prevent your computer from starting and may even force a hard drive format, causing you to lose all of the information on your computer in one fell swoop.

The Program Virus

This is an executable file. It becomes active when the program it has infected is run. When it is activated, it will infect other programs on your hard drive, disabling them.

The Macro Virus

Sometimes the most important aspects of a subject are not immediately obvious. Keep reading to get the complete picture.

The third type of virus specifically targets documents such as Microsoft word. It is activated when the infected document it has infected is run. One action it may perform, for example, is to erase dates in your documents as well as other areas of the computer.

Malware

The term “malware” is short for malicious software. It is a type of program that propagates on your hard drive and can create untold problems when it does so. Malware may install a program that you did not want, or ask for. When it does so, it will use up many of your computer’s system resources, effectively slowing it to a near standstill.

Trojan Horse

Much like its Greek namesake, the Trojan horse program is a seemingly harmless and innocuous application or file, but it contains harmful, malicious code and, when installed, can wreak havoc on your computer system. This program often runs undetected, giving the hacker access to your computer system and, for example, your personal information such as saved passwords and bank account numbers. The hacker is also able to display messages on your computer screen.

Adware

While not necessarily malware, but adware can be used for malicious purposes. Adware goes above and beyond what is reasonable advertising. It is adware, in fact what has given a bad name to some otherwise incredible free software that may actually be very beneficial to you.

It generates popups or other annoying advertising that can in fact freeze or lock your computer. In many cases, the adware is difficult if not impossible for the regular user to remove, disable or even detect.

In addition to displaying ads for the original advertiser, adware may log your whereabouts on the internet and send user information back to the spammy ad company about your computer use without asking for your permission to do so.

Spam is not always the most harmful thing you will find in your inbox; it is the attachments that come with spam that can really devastate your computer system. It is crucial that you do not open attachments in unsolicited email.

Don’t limit yourself by refusing to learn the details about Spam Protection. The more you know, the easier it will be to focus on what’s important.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

Manipulating Text:

This is one of the most commonly used spamming techniques. Spammers will manipulate the text in the email, to foil the anti-spam filters. They may, for example, deliberately misspell some words: “M0rtg4ge” for example. They may add characters or spaces to words in the email header, to make the email seem unique from other email. Like this: X_A_N_A_X Here’s an example, . They may also insert random strings of text within the email.

Chain Letters:

Spammers may send out chain letter instructing you to forward the email to your friends and family. To entice you to do so, it may claim that forwarding it will bring good luck. This spam may carry viruses or a Trojan horse, which is sent along to anyone you forward the email to.

Image-based Spam:

The spammer sends out spam that contains an image in GIF format. This image bears the spammy message. Image-based spam is effective in by-passing spam filters because they are generally text-based.

Dictionary attacks:

This is a technique used by the spammers to find email addresses that they can spam. It involves trying random combinations of common names and words, and using these to making up email addresses, e.g. JaneDoe@YourISP.com, JDoe@YourISP.com, JaneDoe1@YourISP.com. The spammer will then send out junk email to the different variations of these addresses in the hope that some of it will go through,

Spammers tend to direct the dictionary attacks at the large email companies, which have a large number of customers.

Hopefully the information presented so far has been applicable. You might also want to consider the following:

Email spoofing:

Email spoofing involves the use of a fake email header that is written to make it look like someone other than the spammer sent the email. Very often, the spammer will make it look like the email came from a credible source such as your bank or yahoo, and try to get you to reply with personal information such as a password, social security number or credit card number. This technique is widely used because it is easy to do, and tends to catch the recipients off guard.

JavaScript:

The spammer can use Javascript that will ensure that the spam is only visible when the email is loaded. This type of spam can only be prevented using anti-spam software that decodes or blocks the java script.

Social engineering:

This spammer ploy attempts to fool the recipient into reading the junk email by pretending to be an acquaintance. It involves a junk email that has a “personal” subject line, such as “I’m leaving tomorrow,” “I got your message” or “Let’s meet again”.

Mining message boards and chat rooms:

When you post a message to a message board or chat room and leave your email address, automated programs called spambots will find your address and add it to the spammer’s mailing list. Much like a listed phone number in the telephone directory, leaving your email at these types of websites makes it public information.

Web beacons:

A web beacon, also called an “invisible GIF,” is an image sent out with spam that is invisible to the recipient. When the email is opened, the spammer will be alerted that your email address is “live.”

Open proxy, 3rd-party servers:

An open proxy is a third-party server that enables the spammers to camouflage their real identities as well as their Internet locations, when they send out their junk mail. Many spammers use these open proxy servers to help maintain their anonymity.

Now you can be a confident expert on Spam Protection. OK, maybe not an expert. But you should have something to bring to the table next time you join a discussion on Spam Protection.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

Typically, a phishing attack will be executed in combination with a massive spam mailing. Phishing spam is sent out to millions of recipients, often with a subject line that is exciting or upsetting. It is calculated to trigger an immediate reaction from the recipient, and get them to respond without further thought.

The phishing email will often have phrases such as:

-Dear Valued Customer.
-Click the link below to access to your account.
-If you don’t respond within 24 hours, your account shall be closed.

The phishing spam is typically a fraudulent but very official-looking e-mail. It is cleverly designed to replicate the website and email messages of a business you know and trust such as your bank or mortgage company. The email will even sport official logos and graphics of the legitimate company.

It’s really a good idea to probe a little deeper into the subject of Spam Protection. What you learn may give you the confidence you need to venture into new areas.

It will instruct you to click on a link in the email to go to the company’s website, where you can “update” your personal information. The link will usually be “masked,” which means that when you click on it, it will take you to a phony web address. Clicking on the link will take you to a website that appears to be that of the real financial institution’s website. It is, however, just a copycat spoof, set up to give the spammer access to your personal and financial data. You may give your information thinking you are at the real website. Instead, any information you enter here will go directly to the identity thieves.

What are the Consequences?

If you fall prey to the scam and unwittingly divulge private information, you will be left vulnerable to identity theft, credit card fraud and other financial mishaps.

These identity thieves will either sell the information to fellow criminals, or use it for their own financial gain. This vital personal data will be used, for example, to set up fraudulent online bill pay, with payments made out to the phisher. They may use it to access funds from your bank accounts and credit cards and transfer them to their own checking accounts. They may even use a copy of your bank or credit card along with the phished PIN to withdraw cash from your accounts at any ATM.

Phishing is a numbers game for these criminal spammers. They will send out their phishing email to millions of recipients. They count on just a few falling for the scam and volunteering their information: if a mere 1% of recipients volunteer their personal information, the phishing expedition will be a hughly lucrative. It is these few who make their scam worthwhile.

As your knowledge about Spam Protection continues to grow, you will begin to see how Spam Protection fits into the overall scheme of things. Knowing how something relates to the rest of the world is important too.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

Spammers were quick to adopt crossposting as a tool of their trade. Now, they could send the same electronic message to thousands of newsgroup members at the one time. Not only could they target a larger audience with one posting, but they also did not have to differentiate between the interests and focus of the individual forums that they targeted. What’s more it cost them next to nothing to spam these newsgroups.

As email became an increasingly widespread mode of communication, the spammers shifted their focus the massive audience that it made available to them. Mass emailing software soon became another essential tool of their trade, as they begun to use this application to send junk email to thousands upon thousands of unwilling recipients.

The spam industry also adapted the available Internet technology to create the “spambot”. A spambot is an automated program that will rove the Internet, “harvesting” email addresses from newsgroup postings and from other websites. It literally gathers thousands of email addresses in a single hour. These are compiled into bulk mailing lists with which the spammers can thousands of victims at a time.

Truthfully, the only difference between you and Spam Protection experts is time. If you’ll invest a little more time in reading, you’ll be that much nearer to expert status when it comes to Spam Protection.

The practice of sending out unsolicited, unwanted junk email and junk postings came to be called “spam.” The term is commonly believed to have been derived from a British comedy skit by Monty Python, in which a restaurant serves each meal with a side of spam. As a waitress emphasizes to a couple the availability of spam with every dish, a group of Viking patrons break out in song, singing “SPAM, SPAM, SPAM… lovely SPAM! wonderful SPAM!” in a loud chorus. In the 80′s, the term was adopted to refer to the junk emails and postings, and the name stuck.

The earliest, most widely known incident of commercial spamming dates back to 1994. It involved two lawyers who spammed USENET to advertise their services as immigration lawyers. They later expanded their marketing efforts to include email spam. The incident is commonly referred to as the “Green Card Spam.”

This nefarious industry has since grown in leaps and bounds. Today, more than half of the trillion-plus emails that are sent and received are spam. Initially, spam was generally advertising-related email. In more recent years, however, a particularly nasty crop of spammers has emerged, who send out their spam with nothing less than malicious and/or criminal intent. Some send out spam that contains viruses or malicious code. Others devise scams intended to defraud you of your money. And then there are those whose focus is identity theft.

Benign or malicious, commercial or criminal – spam has transformed the way we communicate electronically, and will continue to do so well into the near future and very likely beyond. Spam has become a regular, albeit unwanted, fact of online life.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

You will inevitably receive some spam in your inbox – there is no getting around that fact of life. How you handle this unwanted junk mail will go a long way toward reducing or increasing the amount of spam you will receive in the future. It may also protect you from viruses, credit card fraud, identity theft and other forms of cyber-crime. Next time you log into your inbox, keep these 5 tips in mind to stop the spammers dead in their tracks.

Do not Preview

If you are able to preview your entire email messages in your inbox, you should disable the message preview pane. This is important because some spam email contains code that is specifically designed to compromise your computer and leave you vulnerable to viruses, Trojan horses or worse. Review the options offered in your email program and change the settings.

Do not Fall for the Phisher’s Hook

Many spam emails are cleverly designed hoaxes, which are intended to get you to unwittingly divulge private information. They claim to be from your credit card company, bank or other financial institution, and attempt to fool you into divulging personal information such as your social security number, bank account number, password or other private, identifiable information.

This fraudulent practice is called phishing. Responding to this form of spam would leave you vulnerable to identity theft, credit card fraud and other financial cyber-crime.

If you don’t have accurate details regarding Spam Protection, then you might make a bad choice on the subject. Don’t let that happen: keep reading.

Friend or Foe?

Just because an email has been sent to you by a friend, do not assume that it safe for you to open any attachment that comes with it. Contact your friend and verify that they did indeed send it.
Very often, spammers will attach a virus to their spam, which, if opened, will hijack your email program and mail itself out to every email address in your address book. This fraudulent email will appear to the recipients to have been sent by you. If they in turn, open this email attachment, the same malicious cycle is repeated.

Read your Email in Plain Text

Spammers often use Javascript to embed malicious code in their spam. It may, for example, be designed to infect your system with a virus that can install itself in your computer, and give a hacker or other scammer access to your private and financial information – without your ever knowing it. You can protect yourself against this by changing the settings to display the email messages in plain text. This effectively disables many harmful scripting features

Never Respond

Do not click on any banner advertising or send a reply to a spam message. Doing this lets the spammer that yours is a “real, live” address, which will only result in a deluge of even more spam. Unless you have specifically subscribed, do not click on any unsubscribe messages contained in junk mail. Most of these are only intended to fool you into confirming your address as valid. Also, do not forward any junk chain letters you may receive.

Above all else, common sense is the most important form of spam protection you can have. Be vigilant when you check your mail – even the most advanced anti-spam filter available today cannot keep 100% of all spam out of you inbox.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

Never respond directly to any unsolicited email that asks you to update or verify your personal information. Banks, stores and other legitimate businesses will never ask you to give this information via email, particularly following the advent of phishing.

If there is any doubt as to whether or not the email is from who it purports to be, contact the company immediately to confirm and clarify the request for information. Be sure to call a phone number from your statement. Calling the phone number in the email is probably a direct line to the identity thief.

Never click on a link in any such email. To do so would be to risk downloading malicious Trojan horse spyware, which will install keyloggers in your computer system. This would provide hackers direct access to all the personal data stored on your computer, which they will use for their own nefarious financial gain.

Never, ever fill out forms contained in an email that request personal information. The mere request for this information should ring a loud alarm bell. Phishers are able to use HTML to design very official-looking email messages. Any information entered into these forms goes directly to the phisher

Never trust links contained in unsolicited email. Phishers have devised ways to spoof legitimate website links. Common tricks that are used include misspelling web addresses or using sub-domains that include the name of a legitimate business.

An email link can also be “masked” in such a way that it displays a very official looking text-link to a legitimate company’s website, but clicking on it will take you to the phisher’s web site.

I trust that what you’ve read so far has been informative. The following section should go a long way toward clearing up any uncertainty that may remain.

Do not cut and paste the link contained in the message into your browser. Type the address of the legitimate company in a separate browser window, so as to bypass having to click on the link in a suspected phishing email.

Always be suspicious of impersonal email. Almost all email communication from legitimate businesses will contain some specific piece of personal information that is not readily available to anyone but you. An email from your bank, for example may include part of your account number.
Always keep in mind that here are malicious people out there who do nothing more than think up creative, innovative ways to get at your personal information.

Be sure to use anti-syware and anti-virus software, and keep these regularly updated. Anti-spam filter software may help eliminate or minimize the amount of phishing spam you will receive in your inbox.

Be very cautious of opening any emailed attachments you receive, even if they seem to be from an acquaintance.

Help catch the phishers by reporting any phishing attempts. Forward the phishing email to the company that is being spoofed. Also forward it to these email addresses as well:
spam@uce.gov and reportphishing@antiphishing.org. This information will be used by the Anti-Phishing Working Group to fight phishing. This organization is a coalition between the internet industry, and financial institutions and law enforcement.

Learn more and stay informed by visiting the Federal Trade Commission’s Identity Theft website: www.consumer.gov/idtheft.

Take time to consider the points presented above. What you learn may help you overcome your hesitation to take action.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his new GVO affiliate site: GVO