there are a lot of scams running around lately that are very accurate facsimiles of popular sites like eBay and PayPal. i've received two emails (one for eBay and one for PayPal) in the past week that look like they are from those companies and asked me to confirm my information on their site. the link, however, goes to a page that while looking just like the company's site is a malicious copy. if i were to fill out these forms, someone would have all kinds of information with which they could wreak all kinds of havoc.

use your common sense. be paranoid. look at the address bar and make sure it says "ebay.com" or whereever you think you're supposed to be. if any of what you're being asked to do seems weird, don't do it. email the company and confirm that this is really them. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. if your life is turned upside down by identity theft, it's not my fault.