A Macworld article by Joe Kissell looks at how to keep your e-mail secure. It looks at using webmail securely, encrypting e-mail when necessary, using SSL to connect to your mail server, and watching out for phishing attempts.
Phishing is when malevolent people send you e-mails claiming to be from your bank, credit card company, or from on-line merchants such as Amazon or eBay. These e-mails generally ask you to log in to “confirm” your account, or to “update” your credit card. However, these are simply traps by organized crime rings who then take your credit card number and use it as much as they can until it gets cancelled. Intego Personal Antispam blocks many phishing attempts by detecting bogus URLs and sorting the messages into your spam folder. Phishing is one of the biggest scourges of the Internet, and you should be very careful: never log in to any site by clicking a URL in an e-mail message; these URLs are disguised. Be safe – don’t trust any e-mails asking for you to enter your credit card information.
