Just a warning for folks. I was cleaning out an old yahoo account today, I keep it around just to keep it mine and make sure no one hacks it, but haven’t actually used it in years. So imagine my surprise when I opened it up today to clean out the spam and discovered 5 very realistic looking emails. One from appeared to be from Foursquare with a friend request, two apparently from Youtube with notices about video’s uploaded, and two apparently from Amazon about order cancelations.
At first glance I was a bit concerned that someone had hacked the email, but after a second look I realized it was an experienced spammer trying to get personal information. Please note that I said in all cases above “appeared”. Even the sending email addresses had been spoofed to appear identical to those actually sent from the companies. However a quick look at the LINKS in each email showed the actual addresses linked to were NOT those from the companies. Just to be sure I hit all three company websites (by typing in the addresses thank you very much) and attempted a password reset using my Yahoo email. All three stated no account with that email.
Moral of the story and a reminder to everyone: DO NOT EVER CLICK LINKS IN EMAILS. ALWAYS TYPE IN THE ADDRESS YOURSELF, EVEN IF THE EMAIL APPEARS TO BE REAL. If its a real notice from the company you will be able to find the information with out to much fuss from your account page.