While waiting at the dentist's office this morning I ran across an article in the Reader's Digest, "Don't Take the Bait".

The article was about Phishing. If you aren't familiar with this term it is the email request by a seemingly legitimate lender asking for to update their files. I receive at least 4 of these a day from companies pretending to me CitiBank, Ebay, Paypal, Earthlink etc. and asking for me to log onto their sites and provide my personal information so they can update their files.

But what caught my eye in this article was the line, "Thieves can even get a second mortgage on your house."

The article went on to warn the reader to never give out their sensitive information to a request by email. What is the point, when these same thieves can get the information directly online. Account numbers, Lender name, and even in some cases Social Security numbers and Driver's license numbers are available to thieves in Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa.

How convenient the online documents must all be to what the author called "one of organized crimes new favorite enterprises."