No Family Phishing

Just a quick note of warning for those family members getting started with ebay and such.

If it hasn't happened already, you will soon start receiving a number of emails that look like they are from ebay or paypal. These will have dire warnings and urgent pleadings from everything from customers complaining they paid and haven't received anything to ebay or paypal noticing "suspicious" activity on your account and more.

In each instance there will be a link conveniently provided in the email to resolve the matter quickly. The link will even "look" legitimate. For those more technically inclined it's amusing to hover over these links to see where they actually point.

Some subject lines of ones I've recently received:

• eBay Unpaid Item Dispute for Item #290250074158-- Response Required
• Bank of America Unauthorized Account(s) Access (Secure Code: UB05-C0B1-A-1)
• Please Verify Your TDBanknorth Commercial Account
• PayPal Account Security Measures
  

In any case, please don't ever click on one of these links in an email. Always access your ebay or paypal (or other online) account from a bookmark you've created by entering the site's url directly. This activity is called "phishing" and it's very lame, but it continues to snag people who don't know about it or aren't careful about links coming in from email. The emails are also getting more and more compelling. If you are using Internet Explorer 7 for your browser, make sure your phishing filter is turned on for some additional protection. For Firefox, check the instructions here.

Other than that minor nuisance to keep track of, congratulations on you all dipping your toes in the world of internet commerce! For a really fascinating book about this market and the change of economics, check out: The Long Tail.