Sitting at my computer at work, I received an email, apparently from Verizon, helpfully informing me that my Total Balance Due was $1996.25. Now, I don't have a Verizon account through work, so I immediately suspected a phishing attempt - an email designed to look like a legitimate email from a legitimate business, that instead is from a malicious third party wanting your personal information and/or credit card numbers.
Mousing over the three links in the email, I found they all directed you to a single website. Not a Verizon website. Phishing attept confirmed; email deleted.
Two aspects of this particular attempt, however, were particularly troubling. First, it was pretty well done (resembling this one); there were none of the strange English phrasings or misspellings that usually populate phishing emails (certainly better than this earlier attempt). It really did look legitimate. Adn it came with a due amount large enough to generate a WTF!? response designed to get you to click on the links without thinking.
Second, it was just the latest in an increasing number of such emails I've been receiving lately at work, most of which end up in my junk folder, but an increasing number of which are bypassing the spam filters.
You can defend againt phishing attacks in several ways. First, you can just delete any commercial-appearing emails that land in your inbox. Safe, but you might miss legitimate emails. However, if they look as if they are from companies you do business with, contacting the company directly will resolve questions and avoid any phishing.
Turns out we're not alone in the States; phishing attempts (and emailed malware, generally) are on the rise. Not just consumers, but companies themselves are being targeted in spear phishing attacks designed to penetrate particular entities' defenses, frequently from Chinese servers.
The moral of the story: be very wary of opening any emails, and certainly of clicking on any links in those emails, unless you know exactly where they came from.