When Will People Learn To Be Careful With Their Information?

It's not the worst of breeches of security but problematic for many who got suckered yesterday by a GMail Phishing website (when you're tricked into being taken to an identical web page of lets say your bank or your email account as was the case here that is created to elicit personal identity information from you to be later or immediately used for most likely nefarious purposes)

You eliminate all chances of this occurring by simply bookmarking all those important sites never entering any of them through back doors like emails with bogus links and web searches. I'm a graphic designer and it's practically child's play to create such a phishing site, it's tricking people to use them that should be the hardest part, but remarkably isn't.

For those out there new to web surfing another good rule is to just be fastidious by reading the entry page web addresses of which you are clicking on by mousing over the link first and reading the status bar (in picture below) which many don't even have turned on, which is the little bar above the task bar on all browsers if it's there. If not yours is off and turn it on by going to View at the top left menu in IE and FF and make sure Status bar is checked. (also pictured below)

One thing I like out there as opposed to all the anti phishing crap that Microsoft has lumped into their browser (which again most turn off anyway or don't understand how to implement) is this little thing that AVG has in their free version even, which puts big green checkmarks next to the sites inside Google & Yahoo searches that are safe to navigate and warns the viewer of others, as does Symantec's Norton , McAffee and other products out there but in more imposing ways. They also lumped into their own little toolbars that weigh down an already bloated IE browser and Firefox as well.

This is what I encounter with my set up here before even getting to a phishing website......

I happen to use Norton's Internet Security on my main computers and while many complain about it's tentacles reaching all over the computer, with newer faster machines like my Dell XP 420 with Dual Core processors it doesn't even flinch nor on my XP laptop with the same either, however I use AVG on my older computers which are Dell Dimensions with extra ram installed.

Look twice, read twice click once and read again, it's that simple it really is, and bookmark your important sites associated with banking and such, never entering them through emails, searches or anywhere else other than your safe bookmark, voila phishing eliminated and what happened to some yesterday won't happen to you.

Here's what people saw yesterday as reported by the L Times below my post..click read more

Google remedies Gmail phishing scam

| Technology | Los Angeles Times:"It was a rough day for Gmail.

First, Google's e-mail service experienced an outage that lasted several hours in the early morning. Then, a phishing scam made its way around Google Talk, the chat protocol embedded within the Gmail Web interface.

The users transmitting the links have been blocked, the website marked as malicious in Google search results and the domain indicated as a phishing website to people using the Firefox, Safari and Chrome browsers, a Google spokesperson said in an e-mail. Basically, the action meant that if the ViddyHo.com domain was ever worth anything to anyone, it's not anymore. The website also appears to have been taken offline.

People targeted by the scam received a message from what appeared to be a friend's user name. The message contained a link, which led to a Web page asking for the user's Google log-in name and password. Those who did that had their accounts used to send similar messages to their online contacts.

Google is urging those scammed to change their passwords immediately. The company hasn't received any reports of suspicious activity on targeted accounts, aside from using them to spread the scam, the spokesperson said, adding that the outage and the phishing outbreak were unrelated.

-- Mark Milian

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