In article ,
T. wrote:
...
Earlier this evening, I got the below e-mail. I was a bit
suspcious, first because the link asked me to log on. So, I checked and
it hadn't gone directly to eBay. Went back and checked closer, and
found some suspicious wording.
...

There is a *lot* of phony e-mail which takes advantage of a
(mis)feature of Internet Explorer. One can trick Internet Explorer into
showing a URL in the "Address" line (near the top) and actually be at a
different URL/location. (Maybe it is a bug, not a feature?)

So, e.g., you click and go to something that says www.ebay.com, but
you are actually at some other site controlled by the spoofer, so when
you put in the requested information (name/addr/SSN/credit card/...) it
is going to the spoofer, not to ebay.

If you want to see a demo of this - look at
http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/gn/ex/spoof.html with your copy of IE, and
click on the button. Then compare where the address says you are,
versus what is in the window.

Most other browsers either won't work in this way, or will show the
entire URL on the address line - and so you can see where you actually
are.
--
--henry schaffer
hes _AT_ ncsu _DOT_ edu