And another thing about phishing: if your financial institution sends you emails that sound like they've been painstakingly translated from a vastly foreign language into the Queen's English? Chances are, they're not authentic. Take this example from Washington Mutual (a lovely local bank at which, for the record, I've never had an account):
"We earnestly ask you to visit the following link to start the procedure of confirmation of customers' data. [link] This instruction has been sent to all bank customers and is obligatory to follow.
Thank you for co-operating.
Customers support service"
It's just so…babelfish-y. It's like in Star Trek: Next Generation, when someone figured out that Data was a robot because he never used contractions. That sort of thing. If it doesn't sound like English, leave it alone.
1. I agree, people have to really read these messages and also realize that financial institutions will never ask you to update your personal info online. If a website requests info updates, call it in and if they do not have a contact number listed do not bother.
Posted at 4:51AM on Dec 19th 2005 by steve