Dorienne's Log

I was almost completely duped by a phishing e-mail today. It was kind of scary because I clicked on the link and everything and probably would have gone through with the whole thing, if Firefox had not stepped in and saved me from my own stupidity.

I have an Amazon account and I received an e-mail that said Amazon.com and the “From” domain was amazon.com. The e-mail said that “Amazon” noticed that I had been logging in from a different IP address recently, which is what was got me to let my guard down a bit. I had been logging into Amazon from work because it sometimes helps out customers to walk them through things on the site, so when I saw this e-mail, I immediately thought Amazon had the same system set-up as Chase.com, where if you login from a random IP address, the site makes you verify your information first.

Thank God for Firefox, though. It wasn’t until my beloved browser flashed me a note saying that site looked…phishy…that I took better notice of the e-mail. The link provided in the e-mail, asking me to verify my information, actually did not go to site it proclaimed to be and after noting that the e-mail started “Dear Amazon Customer” instead of Dorienne Smith, I realized that the e-mail had been sent to a completely separate address than I use to log into Amazon!

I feel shakened that someone like me, who is normally so careful, could be duped so easily. I thought that I had checked all the safeguards: there was an Amazon.com logo in the e-mail and the “From” address was security @ amazon dot com, so I went for the link, albeit with some suspicions in mind, but I did click the link. I think what through me most was the fact that I had been signing in from different computers recently and I just let down my guard.

Oh well. I suppose that is why there is a need for “Constant Vigilance” when it comes to safeguarding information, but thank goodness Firefox is there to cushion my fall when my own ignorance seems to take hold.