A reminder from your friendly neighborhood Admin-man

[SavaTheAggie]

It is extremely rare (and mostly forbidden) to discuss things not relating to LEGO in some way on this forum, but a situation popped up on one of my wife's forum that made me feel that, as a public service, I should bring this to light for those of you who may not know better. What I am referring to is protecting your identity on the internet.

There is one great rule of thumb to keep in mind - NEVER give out your personal information to any website unless you explicitly trust it. NEVER give out your Social Security Number, your drivers license, your telephone number, of any other personal ID number to any website unless you are already currently doing business with them.

The IRS is not going to contact you via email, neither is Microsoft. Giving a website your drivers license is not going to prevent someone from stealing or abusing it - quite the opposite will happen (the aforementioned situation on my wife's board).

If you are asked for your information and do not know if you should trust the website, visit snopes.com.

http://www.snopes.com/

Snopes is one of, if not the authority on what is truth and what is fiction when it comes to urban legends, internet rumor, and most importantly, spam, scam and identity theft emails and websites. If Snopes says something is fake - believe them!

Remember, the Internet can be a dangerous place, use caution. Discretion is always the better part of valor.

--Tony

[Lord Felix]

Thank you for this well thought out reminder. I think this would be a good thing to have a link to on the TOS about privacy.
Thanks again for trying so hard to make one of the cleanest, nicest, and best places on the internet. I am forever in awe of the time, effort, and money you ADMINs put into Classic Castle. Plus, you do it with a positive attitude, and with personal notes; you stay personable as well as being the ruler.

Quite frankly, you guys rock.
Thanks for this reminder!

[rogue27]

Anthony is referring to a type of scam called Phishing.

Phishing - the practice of luring unsuspecting Internet users to a fake Web site by using authentic-looking email with the real organization's logo, in an attempt to steal passwords, financial or personal information, or introduce a virus attack; the creation of a Web site replica for fooling unsuspecting Internet users into submitting personal or financial information or passwords

Google maintains a database of all known Phishing sites. The latest versions of the Firefox and Safari web browsers check Google's database and display a warning if you visit a known Phishing site.

It's not foolproof, but it can save people from a lot of grief.