I received an email supposedly sent by my aunt last night. I clicked on the email and an official looking Outlook Express log-in window appears saying type in password to view attachment. My mistake!
It took me 2 1/2 hours to reclaim my Hotmail account. I hate when that happens.
If you received an email from me this morning please delete. I know, when my account was hacked it started sending out more phishing emails.

 

One of my e-mail adresses got into the wrong hands and now my account is filling up with spam. The suspicious mails which are most likely to contain all kinds of nasties are stored in a separate file of which I intend to read them at the employment office's computer room. I have a grudge with them and opening up wormed mails is probably the next best thing to flying a plane loaded with napalm into the building

 

Jay, that is a bummer that your e-mail got hacked. I'm lousy with computers so I can't suggest a good anti virus program. I'm lucky that my computer hasn't been hit yet.

 

Understanding that this is a five month old thread, the way to avoid phishing attacks like this is simply to never click on anything that opens up from an e-mail message.

If you get a message from PayPal saying "Please verify XYZ..." then open a new window, go to PayPal.com, log in, and see if they have any messages for you.
Never do anything in any window that pops up when you click on something in an e-mail.

Yes, you can also look at the actual URLs in the links (which is what I do), but if you just never use any window opened from an e-mail, you should be fine.

- Eric

 

As good as they can get, hackers can always eventually find their way around a firewall