E-mail messages that look to be from financial institutions, online retailer Amazon or auction Web site Ebay appear in electronic mail inboxes all the time. Questionable electronic mail messages often provide a link that the recipient may click to resolve the issue with his or her account. Electronic mail messages frequently warn the recipient that some security breach has taken place with his account, and that action must be taken by the recipient to clear up the problem. There's only one problem - not a word contained in the message is real.

How can a consumer who is sincerely concerned about the security of her financial information tell a real message from a fake one? Criminals on the World Wide Web, determined to access important personal financial documentation that can be exploited, are mailing out e-mail messages by the millions every day, targeting users of recognizable financial institutions with legitimate-looking concerns. Unsolicited notices from financial institutions are an example of "phishing", a popular modern tool used by identity theft hackers. The majority of of these messages suggest harmful consequences for any person who elects to ignore them, cancelation of the account being the most frequent. The messages, at least on their surface, frequently appear to be genuine.
 

There are a few hints to whether a notice is a phishing expedition or a real one.

• One clue that suggests a fake message will come from the greeting. If you conduct business with a company, they probably know your name, and they would use that name in the greeting. Amazon, eBay, PayPal, or any other financial institution would almost certainly greet you by name, certainly not by "Dear customer." "Dear customer" would be a strange greeting for a real client of a business to receive in an e-mail message.
• Look out for misspellings. Often the messages, which seem correct on first examination, are full of hysterically misspelled terminology and poor grammar. A great number of of these opportunists work in foreign countries, where English isn't the usual language.
• Check the links themselves in the electronic mail message. Look for links that seem to lead somewhere other than where they really go. Should you move your mouse over a link in an electronic mail message, most electronic mail programs will show you the Uniform Resource Locator, or URL or Internet address to which the link takes you. The link may say "www.wellsfargo.com" but the real address may be a series of digits, such as "213.126.100.256" or a similar URL to the real one. Often in phishing notices, what the link says and where the link goes are two completely different things.

Contact companies with whom you conduct business by visiting their Website, or contact them using the telephone if you have any doubts. Don't reply to e-mail messages that may or may not have originated with the actual company. Should you do business with a bank or credit union, online payment business, credit card lender or eBay, and you want to contact them, do so directly. It is better to be safe and sound than sorry, and it pays to be cautious. If you are not, then you may turn out to be the latest victim of a financial crime. The key to avoiding being victimized in a phishing crime is to not respond to such messages.