I’ve been banking online since I had to connect with my bank via a modem connection, so I really like it a lot. I’m not the only one. According to the Pew Internet and American Life September 2007 survey on online shopping, 53% of all online users use online banking, or 39% of all adult Americans. But, no less a person than the head of the FBI recently stopped because he was worried about his security.

Wow. FBI Director Robert Mueller said that he recently gave up on online banking when he recently came “just a few clicks away from falling into a classic Internet phishing scam” after receiving an e-mail that looked like it was from his bank. “It looked pretty legitimate,” Mueller said. “They had mimicked the e-mails that the bank would ordinarily send out to its customers; they’d mimicked them very well.”

This is scary stuff. Phishing e-mails are common, but most them aren’t that well done. The idea that one can come close enough to fooling the head of the FBI makes me really stop and think about this.

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