Each year, thousands of people have their private information stolen by what are commonly referred to as "Phishing" schemes.  These are schemes that are intended to trick you into divulging your user names, passwords, credit card numbers and even bank account numbers to fraudulent websites disguised to look like the legitimate, trustworthy sites you do online business with.

TechRepublic has released a report that informs Internet users how to keep themselves safe from these predators, and how to recognize phishing schemes when they see them.  (Download the report here - 5 page report in PDF format: 214k)

There is a very informative website by the "Anti-Phishing Working Group" that is chocked full of information that tells you how to do recognize schemes, how to handle a scheme when you recognize what's happening and even what to do if you think you've been netted in a phishing attack.

The attackers are very sophisticated, even to the point of making a unscrupulous website look legitimate to all but the trained eye.  But every phishing lure has one thing in common.  They all ask you to do something that a legitimate website will never do through an email - that is ask you to follow a link and login to a website to validate your identity or account information.

Helping keep your online experiences safe and enjoyable.  Just one more reason that Farmers is "Your Bank For Life!"