Protecting Your Parents – Reporting Phish-ing Sites
I’m very afraid of what will happen when my Dad finally starts using a computer. He’s very, very smart (History buff), but has very little experience is working online. A funny story is that when my Dad bought his first computer in 1998 he didn’t even use the mouse the first year, he tabbed through everything. It wasn’t until he was on the phone with a technical support person that kept saying ‘click this’ and ‘click here’ that he broke down and confessed he had no idea what she was talking about. He thought the mouse was a handheld scanner so he kept it in the box!
When he told me this story, above my laughter, he explained that *now* it was a much more useful tool. Before then it had been a way too pricey checkbook register. 
For him, banking online or buying anything online is infinitely scary. He won’t even put his bank account numbers or credit card numbers in his machine because he’s afraid that hackers could pull it off the hard drive as he logs on (of course he’s on dial up people).
Anyway, while he makes my poor computer illiterate mother look like an IT analyst, I worry about the both of them everytime they sign on, even though they only really sign on to read my emails and look at my pics on Flickr. I worry because today’s phishing emails are, for the most part, really, really good. I mean, you still get those with misspelled words or slang vernacular that are not believable, but many are tough to see through.
I want to help them, and at this point, reporting phishing sites may be the best thing I can do to help. Filmnut has a great post on how to report phishing sites without spending a half hour per email.
I got another phishing attempt today. I decided to do something about it. Here are five things I found anyone can do to quickly take a bite out of phishing crimes (the key word being quickly).
So, since it will only take you about 8 minutes each time, why not make it a point to report as many as you can. Do it for your mom and dad.
Hat tip to LifeHacker.
You’ve got a great point & great advice here. My own parents, however, wouldn’t even learn how to use the Internet or emails. It’s not that they’re not intelligent enough — they are doctor and nurse. Oh well, look at the bright side, at least I don’t have to worry about the Phishing problem for them! LOL
True, way to look on the bright side… My daughter does that. No matter what we do it’s always, ‘at least it’s not blah blah’.
At least you didn’t crash two cars, at least your pants aren’t ripped in front and in back, at least you and daddy both didn’t get fired. LOL She cracks us up