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Protect your personal information
Exercise caution when sharing personal information such as your
name, home address, phone number, and email address online. To
take advantage of many online services, you will inevitably have to
provide personal information in order to handle billing and shipping
of purchased goods. Since not divulging any personal information is
rarely possible, the following list contains some advice for how to
share personal information safely online:
• Keep an eye out for phony email messages. Things that indicate a
message may be fraudulent are misspellings, poor grammar, odd
phrasings, Web site addresses with strange extensions, Web site
addresses that are entirely numbers where there are normally
words, and anything else out of the ordinary. Additionally, phishing
messages will often tell you that you have to act quickly to keep
your account open, update your security, or urge you to provide
information immediately or else something bad will happen. Don't
take the bait.
• Don't respond to email messages that ask for personal information.
Legitimate companies will not use email messages to ask for your
personal information. When in doubt, contact the company by
phone or by typing in the company Web address into your Web
browser. Don't click on the links in these messages as they make
take you to fraudulent, malicious Web sites.
• Steer clear of fraudulent Web sites used to steal personal
information. When visiting a Web site, type the address (URL)
directly into the Web browser rather than following a link within an
