A few months back I wrote about the Microsoft At Work microsite and its advice for maintaining your computer at work. It may be a little high level – but it is aimed at end users and that in itself is good because us techies are generally not too good at communicating with non-technical people.

Microsoft At Work has a sister microsite – Microsoft At Home. Again, it’s full of practical advice, but is more consumer-focused and one of the articles that caught my eye recently discusses avoiding phishing scams. Phishing is a rapidly increasing form of online crime concerned with identity theft. In a phishing scam, a malicious person attempts to obtain personal information such as credit card numbers, passwords, account information, or other personal information by convincing the end user to give it to them under false pretences. Phishing schemes usually come via spam e-mail or pop-up windows.