ah4sail -- others have answered but here is the definition for phishing:

(fish´ing) (n.) The term phishing comes from the fact that Internet scammers are using increasingly sophisticated lures as they "fish" for users' financial information and password data. The act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has. The Web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user’s information. For example, 2003 saw the proliferation of a phishing scam in which users received e-mails supposedly from eBay claiming that the user’s account was about to be suspended unless he clicked on the provided link and updated the credit card information that the genuine eBay already had. Because it is relatively simple to make a Web site look like a legitimate organizations site by mimicking the HTML code, the scam counted on people being tricked into thinking they were actually being contacted by eBay and were subsequently going to eBay’s site to update their account information. By spamming large groups of people, the “phisher” counted on the e-mail being read by a percentage of people who actually had listed credit card numbers with eBay legitimately.

Click on http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/...ishingalrt.htm on “How not to get hooked by a phishing scam”

I think the reply from Fodor's means that someone clicked on forgot password after trying to sign in with your name..and when they could not answer your security question Fodor's reset your password and sent it to you at the email address you have on file with them...not to the person trying to access your account.

Actually, iceeu2, that's not how it works. Curious, so I tried it myself (it's easy to do!).

I put in my userid and clicked 'forgot my password'. The next screen asked me to answer my secret question (what's your favorite city). I put in a bogus answer, and it just said it didn't recognize my answer, please click back on your browser and try again. So, you have to answer that question correctly. It will not mail you a new password otherwise.

Now that is scarey. So you're saying someone not only tried to log in as me, but they did know my mother's maiden name?
That's what I've asked the editors confirmation of. Really weird.


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Again, TravelFirst, or whatever name you're using this week, if this is too overheated for you, why don't you just ignore it. The problem isn't with us, it's with you!

I don't know who you bank with Patrick but Bank of America managed to lose the personal information of almost 150,000 of its customers including 60 US Senators.

Patrick - It seems like either someone did either know or guess your mother's maiden name. Or, it was a computer glitch - certainly possible!

If your mother's maiden name is a common name, it might be worth using a different secret question. In fact, I prefer using a different secret question anyway, since my mother's maiden name is associated with my credit. Just in case someplace like this gets hacked, I don't want it out there everywhere.

OK, it is now just a little less scarey. I was assuming my security question was my mother's maiden name, but I just went to my profile and found that my security question was actually "What is your favorite airline". Anybody who follows my posts here knows it is American, so now I see how anybody could have gotten past that. I just changed my security question to something less obvious.

GT, I believe the accounts belong to Federal employees--a nightmare regardless.

Simple solution, really, if you'd calm down and re-register, and change your password and security question. Nobody can use Fodors to get important facts about you unless you were shortsighted enough to put them in the system. Try to relax, you're going to blow a gasket over a system glitch.

Maybe TravelFirst is really the same troll who got into your account, with all this insistance that it could only have been a system glitch.

TravelFirst is providing so much fun to this thread, I think we should make a point of posting more of them more often and see how long it takes for TravelFirst to blow a gasket, since it appears to me that everyone else on this thread is quite relaxed and calm.

I'm still new to the "troll" theory, but unfortunately catching on quickly.
What amazes me most is the troll is usually the one saying the true posters spend too much time here and put too much thought into it while actually the TROLL is the one taking it so serious by needing to disrupt the functionality of the board.
People here are trying to help others and get information on travel and when you find someone with similar interests, you tend to want to know more about them. That is what happens here.
Trolls need to get a life. If you don't want to HELP - go disturb you husband/wife/kids/co-workers/friends (if you have any) and leave those truly trying to help alone. I hate that I could be one who gets false information from someone who has nothing better to do.

I just got another email from the editors. Yes, they confirmed that someone did in fact pass my security question and that's why I was given a new password. A good lesson to me. I have no idea why my security question was favorite airline -- but that appears to be the first one that displays and must be the one I clicked and answered when I first registered on Fodors. I've never been back to look at that, and at the time never would have imagined that someone would actually try to breach my registration. A good lesson.

The troll I mentioned akskar_stockholm has been banned from the board, according to the editor who emailed me.

I'm not saying that TravelFirst is the same as alkskar_stockholm, but it IS ironic that "TravelFirst" registered here just after "TravelLaughter" was banned from here for all the nasty and rude posts. And both "TravelLaughter" and "TravelFirst" happened to be in Paris the first part of January according to their respective posts. What a coincidence, don't you think?
TravelLaughter was also known for blowing gaskets while telling everyone else to be calm. Another interesting coincidence.

neworleanslady, you got THAT right!

Now, Patrick, you've changed part of your registration, so happy you were able to take my advice. I'm sure you must be feeling better now. But all that babbling about screen names is only going to upset you all over again, and frankly, none of it made any sense, so you'll need to cook up a different conspiracy theory. Relax.

Very funny, TravelFirst, but your name of TravelLaughter suited you so much better as you really are funny, but you're hardly "first" in anything, unless it would be obnoxiousness!

I have not been "upset" at all as you obviously are. I thought it was worth mentioning here since most posters were not aware that it can be possible for someone to cause them to be "de-registered". Obviously the "troll" who attempted to log on as me WAS aware of that fact.

Frankly a tempest in a teapot. Big conspiracy! Give Fodors credit for some brains. And you're still babbling about names, which makes no sense. Do try to relax.

Patrick, thank you for posting this info so the rest of us can be aware of this situation. We are a community here and we are known to each other by our registration names. This is a form of identity theft, no matter that it is on a travel talk forum and nothing more serious.

"He who steals my purse steals trash, but he who steals my good name steals all that I have."

Patrick - I don't suppose you needed all this aggravation on top of everything else! Anyway, it's a good lesson for all of us. Thanks for letting us know about it.

"Once again appears some posters have centered their life around this website, to the degree that an errant email completely upsets their day. How did Fodors become so important? It's about travel, at least that's what the guidelines say. Unless this is a ruse to gain some attention? "
This from a man who posts under a different screen name at least once a week. Who seems to have his own number of hours on Fodors in the records books. And someone who never contributes information but always a comment on other posters...Hmmmm
Patrick, I do hope this is a Fodors attempt to keep the trolling down.

Joe or Leone or whatever, babble on. Are you at your government owned computer right now? Is this a good example of how our tax dollars are being spent?

Thanks goodness, less babbling on the west coast than eastward.