Phishing is a common email scam where criminals send emails that appear to be from a legitimate source, such as your bank or Paypal, trying to get you to give up your username and password.

The message usually says something like “We have detected an attempted fraud using your account. Please log in and confirm that your account has not been affected.”

There will be a link in the message that appears to take you to the website for your bank, Paypal, eBay, etc. where you would normally log in.

The catch is that the web page is fake and if you enter your login information, it goes straight to the scammer - who then has access to your account.

In some cases, there might even be a login form right in the email itself.

There are a couple of simple ways to identify these scams.

First, none of these websites will send you an email with a login form right in the message itself. They will sometimes include a link to their website, but in many cases they don’t even do that. If you get an email with a login form in the message, delete it and DO NOT enter your information there.

Second, if you point at the link in an email message for a couple of seconds, most email programs will show you the actual page it goes to.

If the email appears to be from Paypal for example, the link should start with http://www.paypal.com/

If it’s something like http://22.293.21.92/cgi-bin/paypal.com it’s a fake. There shouldn’t be anything between http:// and www.paypal.com.

The safest way to deal with these messages is not to click on the links at all. If you’re concerned it could be a legitimate email, just go to your web browser and go to the website directly.

If there is really something up with your account, you’ll get a message about it after you log in.