Do you ever receive e-mails that seem to come from eBay, PayPal, your bank, etc. that you just aren't sure about?  Well, there is a simple and easy way to figuring out whether or not an e-mail you're reading is authentic or a fraud.

First, if you ever get an e-mail that appears to have originated from eBay or PayPal, DO NOT click on any links in the e-mail.  The most common type of scam e-mails are modelled after eBay's and PayPal's e-mails.  What you need to do is log into your eBay or PayPal account (whether it be through a bookmark or typing in 'www.ebay.com' or 'www.paypal.com').  If eBay or PayPal has really sent you anything, you'll find out about it after logging into your respective account as they will then notify you on the screen.  If nothing pops up after logging into your account then simply disregard the e-mail.  The same process can be used to check any e-mail you 'supposedly' receive from one of your financial institutions.

Now, if you don't want to go through the repeated hassle of logging into any of your accounts after reading the title of a suspicious e-mail then you should do the following (for tech-savy people):

1. Open the e-mail so it appears on the screen.
2. Move the mouse pointer over the link(s) in the e-mail and notice what the URL is for that link.
3. The link should have something very similar to the following text at the beginning of the URL (for eBay and PayPal e-mails): http://www.ebay.com/, https://www.ebay.com/, http://www.paypal.com/,  or https://www.paypal.com/.  If you see anything different than this then you know the e-mail is fraudulent and likely part of a phishing scam.
4. If the e-mail seems to have originated from one of your financial institutions then you should definitely see something like the following at the beginning of the URL: http://www.wellsfargo.com/,  https://www.wellsfargo.com/, or http://www.<financial institution name>.com/ and https://www.<financial institution name>.com/.  Likewise, if you see anything different than this then the e-mail is likely to be fraudulent and you should just delete it.
5. And when in doubt about the authenticity of an e-mail, by all means you should go to the site either through your bookmark or typing in the URL on your own.

Hope that helps.  Thank you for checking out my guide, and have a great day!