Good tips. My wife uses e-bay and she gets strange messages all the time. She never clicks on the links. One thing to look for is an overwrought sense of urgency. They'll say if you don't do something or other IMMEDIATELY you account will be cancelled without warning. Same for bank scams and such. No legitimate company is ever going to cancel your account without warning and they are not going to call updating you info (the most common simple phishing scam) and emergency.
Heres a site, btw, all about this stuff:
http://www.anti-phishing.org/