The other day I got a "newsletter" that claimed to be from MySpace. So I did what I always do when I get a newsletter from a website I never visit: I opened it and logged in. Today, to my surprise, I find that my password is changed and all of my friends hate me now. My profile is covered with strange ads and spyware and, since I use the same email address and password for my eBay, GMail, and PayPal accounts; they got access to my banking information and transferred all my money into someone else's account.
See how fucking stupid that sounds? The above contrived example is the kind of thing I would cry about if I was stupid enough to fall for a phishing scheme. Every day, more people fall for bullshit phishing schemes [Source]. Not only is this completely avoidable, it's entire inexcusable.
The reason people fall for phishing tactics is because they're utterly stupid. You have to be one brain-dead, careless fucking ogre to be deceived by an email that says "You need to enter your password or your account will be deleted" when the actual web site says almost on a daily basis that "We will never ask for your password."
Phishing isn't anything new. It's been around since the early 1990's when it was cool to phreak and be an "AOL hacker." Fifteen years later, upper- to middle-class businessmen are still too fucking naive to read the entire URL sent in "monthly newsletters" they've never received in the six months they've owned their accounts.
Granted, not everyone has a background in computers like I have. But that doesn't excuse anything: If you get an email from "PayPal" saying you need to log in to your account or it will be terminated, type https://www.paypal.com into your address bar and don't be such a lazy piece of shit. If there was really such an "account termination" in progress, there'd be something posted on the company's homepage.
It doesn't take a genius or a computer hacker (slight redundancy?) to figure out that you're being bullshitted. You just need to pay attention and pull your head out of your ass. And if that's too much for you, you deserve to be phished.
