Watch out for second chance offers, too. I got one once for a JD 214 that I didn't win, saying the original seller had backed out, and my $700 bid was now the high end. I was more than a little suspicious when the seller said he would not charge me for shipping, so I contacted the seller through ebay.com, and gave my phone number. She called me within about three hours saying the tractor had been sold and picked up, don't pay this person a dime, and report him. I sent him a polite but honest email telling him what a low-life drain on society he was, which I'm sure he promptly deleted, but it made me feel better. His email was from kred.com, which I guess allows anyone to set up anonymous accounts, like hotmail. The lesson in the end is that like Castoff said, if ebay or an ebay user wants to get in touch with you, they'll do it through ebay.com, not from some random email account, directly to your personal email account. Also, if it looks too good to be true, it is. No one's going to ship a tractor at a cost of $450 when the sale price is only $700. They also won't sell a three-year-old name-brand CUT with a loader and backhoe for the buy-it-now price of $2,500. Buyer beware!

Huh. For once work group is getting it right. I never see that. It's the only Outlook account I have. I always ignore the updates for email... because Yahoo updates all the time whether I like it or not. I figure, whatever they "need" to change, they'll do.

Did you report it? I always scan my junk mail folder on Hotmail because I have the filter set on high, and when I come across those, I always report them as phishing scams. It takes just a click or 2. I've had a few in the last week pretending to be from accounts I have, common to many folks, but the sender email address is never right, and the URL that appears when I mouse over the link they want you to click is never anything close to correct for the company or account. I always scrutinize those 2 items nowadays. P.S. Is that really the case w/ topic titles? I had not noticed. P.P.S. Wow - just checked and it is true! That's weird.

People absolutely can be too diligent, because that implies the need to be wary, concerned or have focused attention to this phenomenon. In between being diligent at one extreme and oblivious at the other is a big middle ground where I think most people should be. The possibility of having a problem because of a bogus email trying to install malware, or trying to get sign-on information, or trying to do other types of nefarious things is very well known, easy to spot and easy to handle. The risk is quite low for those who are not oblivious. If you receive an email that sounds ominous or is trying to alert you to a problem it says you need to act on, check the return address first. If you get an unrequested email with a link or a box to click on, don't. If there's an attachment, even if the return address is someone you know, don't open it before first checking with that person. Otherwise, just ignore it and move on. This is no different than bogus phone calls purporting to be from the IRS or the Social Security administration that many get. They're obvious and while annoying, they're easy to deal with. Remember that when you need to reset a password or validate your identity for a particular site, the way it works may be for you to be sent an email or message from that LEGITIMATE site you're interacting with. Such messages come in a minute or two and you know to expect them. Links contained in messages like that that you've just been alerted to, that arrive immediately or in a minute or two, are perfectly okay to click on.