Remember the classic story from grade school? "The dog ate my homework.
" Maybe not such a popular (or remembered!) excuse nowadays, it sure was popular "way back when.
" Fast-forward to today, when a similar story is used by internet-based crooks to con people out of important personal information - the password to their e-mail account.
In my private computer practice, several of my clients have reported getting an e-mail that allegedly comes directly from their e-mail provider.
I'm not going to mention any names, but this seems to hit hard at those online, web-based mail systems.
Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail have all seen this scam.
The mail message looks very official and basically says the provider needs to "confirm your e-mail address and other information.
" The message even includes a link for you to click on, to take you directly to the e-mail system's "information page" so you can fill in needed data, including your e-mail address and the account password.
Don't ever fall for this! This is a complete scam.
Every e-mail provider will tell you they will never ask for your information.
If you get one of those e-mails, either delete it or use whatever tools are included in your e-mail account to report it to the "abuse" department of your provider.
Here's what happens to those that fall victim to this scam: Once the "bad guys" have your e-mail address and password, their first move is to go to your e-mail account and change the password - you're locked out of your own e-mail account! You might wonder what good it does for a scammer to have an e-mail account? After all, there's no important personal or financial data there (or shouldn't be).
But the answer is this: Once the bad guys can get into your account, they also have access to your address book - all the names and e-mail addresses of friends, family and business associates.
And when they have that information, that's when the scam really kicks into high gear.
Using your e-mail address book, the scammers send out an e-mail - from your account - that says something like, "Hello...
I'm stuck in Europe and ran out of money.
Can you lend me some cash to get home? I'll pay you back when I get home.
" And they supply their own money-wiring account information.
Friends and others who get the message may indeed fall for the scam - I've seen it happen! They wire off to someone they think is you, but it's going to the scammers account! That's just one of the many ways e-mail scammers have to profit from unsuspecting victims.
Remember - never give your e-mail account password to anyone! It's the online equivalent of giving a stranger your "PIN" (Personal Identification Number) for your ATM card.
Don't respond to e-mail requests for this kind of information, just delete them from your inbox.
Some e-mail providers also have a reporting function, which lets you forward suspicious messages to the company for review.
You can try that if you'd like, but I can tell you for sure that e-mail providers are well aware of the problem, and are (we hope) working hard on a solution.
My advice: just hit the delete key or button, and know you've done your part.