Identity theft and personal information theft in general is quite a problem today, especially for those who frequent the internet. We are always told to be cautious of what information we allow to get onto the net by being particular on what sites we give classified information to or only going on encrypted connections. Somehow, no matter what precautions we take, a breach in security of some kind inevitably takes place.

Recently, we had a wake-up call here at our store. People pretending to be from PayPal were sending us emails about our account, and requesting information to terminate wrongful transactions or to ensure security. For example, we had one email that said it was from PayPal that came in the form of a receipt for a camera phone that we had supposedly ordered for roughly $300.00. To dispute the transaction, there was a link to click that took you to a fake resolution center asking for all kinds of personal information that was said to be used as a confirmation of the identity of the account holder.

Now in reality, this was quite a trick, or "Spoof" as PayPal likes to call it. There was no actual transaction for a $300.00 phone, it was just a way to fool people into going to the fake dispute transaction link and input all kinds of info that should not be given out. This is called "phishing" and PayPal actually works quite hard to try and prevent it from happening. It could be quite easy to get fooled this way because PayPal members already have  a good sum of personal and financial information tied into their site, so it seems like no big deal confirming the info they already possess. PayPal is a name which many have grown to trust.

Here are some tips for staying a little more secure and keeping the harm done by "phishers" to a minimum:

1. Do not trust links from emails that supposedly come from PayPal and lead to a site in which you have to type in your user email adress and password. Instead, get out of your email and check out any transactions that you may or may not have done separately on the PayPal site itself.

2. If you think you may have found a fraudulent email from PayPal, forward it to spoof at  paypal.com and let them test it to see if it actually is fraudulent or not.

3. If you think you may have accidentally given out any information through a spoof link, quickly go to PayPal and change both your password and security questions. You would do this in the Profile section of the PayPal site.

4. Alert your bank if you think any of your bank account information may have gotten into the wrong hands.

Hopefully this helps at least one person prevent some type of wrongdoing to their finances. A little extra time and caution can keep your money that much safer.