How to spot a phishing scam

Since I've written two articles letting people know about phishing scams, I've received requests asking me how you can spot a phishing attempt. The classic scam has some classic earmarks.

Phishing is an attempt to trick you into revealing details of your identity to a scam artists.The scammer sends out emails that often look totally realistic and make you fear some problem. Here are the classic signs to watch for.

1. An urgent message that something is wrong with an account because of numerous denied login attempts.
2. A message that your account will be closed, that arrives without any notification.
3. A very official looking email that uses the logos of your bank or Pay-Pal or some account where private information is required for access.
4. Mispelled words or bad grammar.
5. A link to the "resolution" center that is not the official website of the institution they are trying to emulate.

Here are some links you can use to get more detailed information Wikipedia and you can report incidents and check on current scams here Anti Phishing Working Group

Heres a picture of an email message that I actually received