Watch Out When Someone Calls You "Dear Customer" (Scam!)

Received any e-mails from PayPal or Ebay lately, addressed to "Dear Customer" and telling you there's a problem with your account?

Looks real, this e-mail. Has the Ebay or PayPal logo at the top. Of course, it only takes a moment to pull one of those logo graphics off the real Ebay or PayPal website....or any other website, for that matter.

I once took a whole three minutes to create a very plausible-looking e-mail, complete with logo, claiming to be from one of the country's largest banks, asking "Account Holders" to fill out a form ("Click on this link, please") so that their account information could be "verified." Of course, in my version, there was no form, and I identified this e-mail as a fake I'd created. Sent it to my friends to show them how easy this was to do.

Any legitimate company that you have an account with knows your name, and will never send you an e-mail addressed to "Dear Customer." Nor will it ask you for personal financial information to "verify" your account.

If you get something like this, do not respond! Do not give these people any information! Open a fresh window, go to the website of the real company and look for a "Contact us" link where you can ask if there's a problem with your account. Chances are you'll get an e-mail back telling you that there isn't, and asking you to forward the "scam" e-mail to the company,

A logo does not mean an e-mail is legit. Always check first....and keep your financial information out of the hands of identity thieves.