Don't Be an April Phool - FTC

The Federal Trade Commission, the National Consumers League and Microsoft Corp. today teamed up to talk about civil law enforcement and education campaigns to fight "phishing" -- a growing form of online fraud that uses e-mail to lure people into coughing up their personal and financial details at fake e-commerce and banking Web sites.

Just in time for April Fools' Day, the FTC today reminded consumers about its advice on "How not to get Hooked by Phishing Scams," which it said has been viewed more than a half-million times since it was first posted in June 2004. A short while ago, we compiled our own consumer tips on how to avoid these scams.

Microsoft also used the occasion to announce that it has filed 117 lawsuits to learn the identities of scam artists behind a whole bunch of recent phishing expeditions targeting its MSN Internet and Hotmail e-mail users. The company has had some success with this before, most notably in its case against 21-year-old Iowan who was ordered by a court in December to pay $3 million for trademark violations for sending out MSN phishing scams.