Why are there so many spammers in the world?  Because there are so many gullible and ignorant people on the internet.  It is so easy to lead people astray and convince them of something totally bogus.  The sad thing is that there is little out there to educate people about how to spot phishing scams and whatnot.

Luckily there’s McAfee SiteAdvisor.   This site offers great info on almost any site you’ll go to.  They sign up for whatever the site has to offer and let’s you know how many emails they get from it.  It also evaluates the safeness of the sites and downloads it links to.  They also collect user comments and reviews.  And best of all they provide a plugin for Firefox (which you use if you know what’s good for you) that lets you see a site’s safety while you’re looking at it or on the Google search results page.

They also just made this.  It’s a test to see how savvy you are about scams on the internet.   It’s a very good test and pretty enlightening I’d say to those who aren’t sure what phishing is.  Just so you know I got 10 out of 10 correct, earning me the title of “Safety Guru.”  Yeah, I’m pretty proud.  Anyways, you should take it.

Another handy resource for calling out scams is Snopes.com.   It’s a great place where they try to debunk just about anything from spam to urban legends, although it’s own integrity has been called out before.

Browse safe.  And don’t forget to wear your Hawaiian Shirt tomorrow.