Last week, I saw several emails floating around, all of which LOOKED as if they had originated from PayPal’s Customer Service Department, asking you to verify a recent change in your password and email address. The emails looked more convincing and authentic than ever, complete with logo and color scheme to match PayPal’s brand. But when I hovered my mouse over the link in the email, the “tool tip” that popped up was NOT a PayPal domain. In other words, by making you THINK that someone had changed your password and email address, they were scaring you into giving up your password and email address so that someone COULD change your password and email address. Gulp. This is not only dishonest, it’s plain dirty pool. Word to the wise: Never click a link in an email without first examining it carefully — because, you see, the text or graphic in the email need not correspond at all to the location on the Internet to which the link is sending you. (I’ve said it before: I don’t really like that system. So my personal preference is RIGHT-click the link, then “copy URL to clipboard” then paste the results into your browser’s URL or web address box. Then study it carefully. Look at the destination. With PayPal, for example, it should say https://www.paypal.com/something. It should NOT say http://www.teamore.com/update/confirm.php or anything like it. Please don’t say later that nobody warned you.
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