Go Phish

Dear You,

The Internet, said a workshop leader, is like the Wild West -- keep your gun handy. I was reminded of this today when I got a phishing email, supposedly from PayPal, the vendor I use to buy and sell with eBay online.

The mail looked legitimate. It warned me that there may have been illegal activity with my account, and would I "click here" to verify information to allow them to "unblock" it. When I clicked, I was taken to a web page that asked for several things -- in essence, my credit card information, security number and pin . . . everything you might like to have in order to go on a shopping spree.

Ordinarily, I'd just laugh, delete the message, and go on with my life. But this one made me mad. So I forwarded the email and the spurious URL to the boys at PayPal to track down the bad buys.

I write this not because I'm new to phishing expeditions -- I've had several in recent months -- but because of the unnecessary half-hour I had to put into the situation. Outside it's a beautiful day. But somewhere, really rotten and annoying people are working to spoil it. And I want them to pay, pal!