My friend Alec Saunders is having a call at 11am Eastern Standard Time (GMT-5) related to phishing-hackers setting up legitimate-sounding or looking sites upon which to capture your private information. You can either join this call if you're a Facebook member and you've added the Free Conference Call app, or head on over to saunderslog.com later on Monday to listen to the resulting podcast.

So why are corporations helping to perpetuate phishing scams? They're not doing it intentionally. They are simply using the same tactics that phishers use: use auto-dialers to call customers telling them to update their credit card information by calling a special 800 number. However, phishers are doing the same thing-setting up legitimate-sounding systems to capture the credit card data and use it for nefarious purposes.

Bottom line, folks: don't click on links in emails and don't call numbers given to you over the phone by automated systems. Always go to the website you know and call the number on the back of your card. It's much less dangerous and you're much less likely to be a victim of credit card or identity theft!