I just wanted to warn everyone about a new scam tactic hackers are employing on online users. On Sunday, I was discussing the new pay per post opportunity with my mother. At first, I thought it might be something to consider, but she thought otherwise. We both had concerns about giving away personal information online, especially a social security number; after all, you hear so much about identity theft these days. After our conversation, I decided not to follow through with this idea. I think it must have been a combination of God, the spoken word in church, and my mother that led me to the Sunday paper. I was looking through the business section and I found an article I had to share with all of you, my fellow interns. It said that a bunch of emails recently surfaced to computers appearing to come from a company who may claim this pay per post opportunity. Apparently, there have been problems with people's accounts from these "phishing" emails. These type of emails usually ask online users to click an email link, which leads them to a phony website to steal their personal information. But now, hackers are trying to use phones to gain this information, since people are wising up to bogus emails.

From a conversation with my mom to a Sunday newspaper article, it was truly amazing how I received confirmation on my decision not to participate in this act of fraud. I'm thankful that I did not have to learn a hard lesson by having my personal ID stolen; this will make me more alert in the future of other online opportunities, as I'm sure it will for all of you.