I was searching for Amazon’s merchant website in order to sell some old baseball cards of mine. So, I typed in a search term for it.
The results led me to a website that I thought was Amazon’s. I found out that I had been ‘phished’ for my e-mail address when Amazon later on sent me an e-mail about that possibility after my ‘registered’ e-mail address and password failed to log me in.
The very enlightening e-mail from Amazon is reproduced below for your information:
[
Dear xxxxxxxxx xxxxx,
Hello from Amazon.com.
As a precaution, we've reset your Amazon.com password because you may
have been subject to a "phishing" scam.
Here's how phishing works:
A scam artist sends an e-mail, which is designed to look like it came
from a reputable company such as a bank, financial institution, or
retailer like Amazon.com, but is in fact a forgery. These e-mails
direct you to a website that looks remarkably similar to the
reputable company's website, where you are asked to provide account
information such as your e-mail address and password. Since that web
site is actually controlled by the phisher, they get the information
you entered.
Go to amazon.com/phish to read more about ways to protect yourself
from phishing.
To regain access to your Amazon customer account:
1. Go to Amazon.com and click the "Your Account" link at the top of
our website.
2. Click the link that says "Forgot your password?"
3. Follow the instructions to set a new password for your account.
Please choose a new password and do not use the same password you used
with us previously.
Thank you for shopping at Amazon.com
Sincerely,
Amazon.com
Please note: this e-mail was sent from an address that cannot accept
incoming e-mail. To contact us about an unrelated issue, please visit
the Help section of our website.
]
I kept wondering how that could have happened, especially with all my online protection from Firefox updates being so current and my paid-for K7 software touting its almost anti-everything beneath the sun.
It is becoming very clear to me that no matter the level or number of security software on your computer system, there will always be a weak point somewhere and somehow.
As luck would have it, Yahoo came to my rescue with a few links about such incidents and what to do. So, I share the tips with you below, a la Yahoo Mail:
Don't talk to strangers (especially phishers).
Stumble It!
Seed Newsvine
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