Phishing is the internet equivalent of trying to gain entrance to someone’s home by posing as a city employee. Phishing is on the rise as part of a trend in which virus and worm attacks are diminishing and browser-based attacks are increasing. One way to draw victims to a dangerous website is placing links in trick email.

Phishing email messages look authentic, as if they came from a bank or credit card company. The intent is to trick you into handing over personal data in the form of credit card numbers and passwords or to find an open door for spyware that can steal data the next time you enter it in a legitimate online transaction.

PayPal, who with their parent company eBay have seen and heard it all, offer these ten tips for spotting a phishing expedition:

1. Generic greetings — the real deal should identify you by name.
2. A fake sender’s address — if in doubt, send an email to the addressee and see what comes back.
3. A false sense of urgency — emails that come off like ticking time bombs are not to be trusted.
4. Fake links — mouse over the link without clicking on it to see if the URL goes where the link promises.
5. Emails that appear to be websites. Emails shouldn’t request personal information.
6. Deceptive URLs — look for telltail signs like the @ symbol or a variation of the company name in the URL.
7. Misspellings and bad grammar — phishing messages often include errors a proofreader would catch. Some misspellings aim to defeat spam filters.
8. Unsafe sites — the ’s’ in https:// stands for secure. don’t enter personal data in an unsecure form.
9. Pop-up boxes — pop-ups are not secure; don’t enter personal data there.
10. Attachments — reliable businesses don’t transfer data through email attachments .

InsideWork will never ask for private information in an email form. We will only take private data on our secure registration and shopping cart pages.