About a week ago I posted about a fake email from PayPal and warned everyone to be careful about clicking links in emails. Well this morning, my boss got an e-mail from a personal friend. Here is part of that message:

I had been using Amazon.com to buy text books. Recently, I was sent an email from them (on 1/26/06), with a link, asking me to please update my credit card info (including PIN and last 3 digits on back of card). The email and link both looked legitimate, as I am cautious of such thins, so I proceeded. On 1/27/06, 1/28/06 and 1/30/06 a total of $1959.64 was charged against my debit Visa card, I wouldn't have even known this soon if the nice lady from the bank wouldn't have called.

...

NO COMPANY OR BANK SHOULD EVER BE CONTACTING YOU FOR THIS TYPE OF INFORMATION, this is something I knew and tell people and I still got caught. No matter how legitimate it looks, IT IS NOT!!

She is correct. Banks, credit card companies, shopping sites, etc will never send you a message that states you need to update your account information. Never, ever, click on a link in an email that you are not ABSOLUTELY sure of the origin. It is very easy to fake a link.