One of the most dangerous scams on the Internet now is something called "phishing." Yep, pronounced as in fishing, because in this form of identity theft, they use fake e-mail as bait to hook you.

Here's how it works. You get a simple e-mail message that looks like it's from your Internet service provider or eBay or Paypal. It asks you to fill in an online form because of some problem with your account. When you go and do that, they capture your personal info and use it to steal your identity, perhaps breaking into your credit cards or bank accounts.

Things you can do to protect yourself:

* Be wary of "account shutdown" messages: These typically warn you your account it going to be shut down unless you "fix" it with some information. If necessary, call the service to check.

* Don't fill in personal info via a link: Always go to the service's main site to check it out. An e-mail link can be faked.

* Check credit card statements: You already know to do this, but look for strange transactions on your credit cards. Consider having a card just for online shopping.

Two excellent sites:

• consumer.gov/idtheft: help from the government.
• IDtheftcenter.org: resources on fighting the problem and repairing your ID/credit history, if you need to.

See my June 2003 7online.com story on how to prevent identity theft.

Write to techguru@sree.net and let me know your thoughts.