PHISHING SCAM EXPANDS
TO THREE MORE STATES
(December 2009)
Bank, Credit Union
Credit Union Customers Fooled by Bogus Text Messages
Customers in Cincinnati,
St. Louis and Lewiston Idaho
reported receiving text messages stating their bank accounts had been
frozen. These attacks mirror those
against bank customers in Pennsylvania, Nebraska and New
York in October.
PHISHING SCHEME
SPREAD TO 3 MORE STATES
(January 2010)
Institutions in
Georgia, Iowa and Indiana Report Scams to Defraud Customers
Calls made by an overseas scam
artist told some customers that "Your debit card has been restricted" and
directed them to call a 1-888 number to lift the restrictions on their
card. Once the customers give their
debit card number the scam artist would access their funds through computer
transactions. Police report the scam
callers are using "caller ID spoofing," which allows their number to appear as
a legitimate business number on the customers phone.
VISHING SCAM: FOUR MORE STATES STRUCK
(February 2010)
Five Institutions Say
Customers Received Fraudulent Calls
As recently as a week ago institutions in Michigan,
Wisconsin, Minnesota
and Mississippi
reported being hit by these vishing attacks.
Vishing is a form of phishing, where instead of people receiving an
email trying to lure them into giving personal information, the criminal uses a
phone call, either live or automated, to attack the institutions customers and
get critical information.
Examples of some of the calls are...
A
woman calling herself "Ashley" from Team One was alerting customers to the
fraudulent use of their checking account. Phone
calls from people claiming to be from their bank and that the person's
credit card has been deactivated because of suspected fraud, and then asks
for the card number and PIN to fix the problem. Caller
is an automated voice that says there may be a problem with a credit or
debit card and says that the only way to deactivate the card is by
entering into the telephone their accounts numbers.
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YOU CANNOT BE TOO
CAREFUL WHEN DEALING WITH YOUR PRIVATE FINANCIAL INFORMATION! I have not even
gone into how easy it is to access your computer by you simply clicking on
flashing little banners offering free this and that. Spyware gets imbedded into your computer and
keeps track of your keystrokes. Opening
email from people you do not know accomplishes the same thing. Fake ATM fronts on real ATM machines that
steal your PIN's. And the worst is
retail stores that take your card information when you charge merchandise, then
carelessly let thieves steal their information...your information.
You must take a "timeout" when receiving one of these calls
before releasing any information. By
taking a minute to think about what is occurring you will realize you may be
involved in a scam. Call your financial
institution from the number on the credit or debit card to verify...don't take
the number given to you by the caller.
Don't open suspicious emails and practice "safe internet usage".
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