Anyone with an email account knows that phishing is one of the most common fraud tactics used by online criminals these days. And of those billions of phishing emails, almost 75% of the scam messages pretend to be from "eBay" or "PayPal." Just this morning, I deleted about 30 very authentic looking eBay messages from my personal email account.

Unfortunately, there isn&39;t much eBay and PayPal can do to stop their brand names from being a target. Both sites have posted detailed fraud centers that explain phishing and other common scams that affect online auction users. PayPal has recently revamped their security site and it has a lot of good information for even non-PayPal users. For National Consumer Protection Week, PayPal interviewed their security executive and posted a short video on YouTube. Click on the image below to watch Larry Friedberg&39;s four minute interview:

I wish Larry&39;s advice in this clip had gone a little further than "just think." I&39;m sure his experience in the anti-fraud world has taught him juicier tips than that.  But it is still an interesting look at what PayPal is doing to stop phishing and other scams.

Did you receive a fake eBay or PayPal message in your inbox this morning? You can report the spoofed email to eBay here or forward it to PayPal&39;s security office at spoof@paypal.com.