3 Pervasive Phishing Scams
January 24th, 2010 | 
Author: 3 Pervasive Phishing Scams
Scams involving email continue to plague consumers acrossAmerica indeed the world. These so called “phishing” scamsinvolve “spoofed” emails meant to draw the unwary to bogusinternet sites masquerading as legitimate sites. These scamartists phishers attempt to hook visitors in by havingthem divulge certain critical and personal bits of information.Once the information has been divulged the phishers start theirdirty work and you have been conned. Several phishing scamscontinue to persist the following are three of the mostpervasive ones.
1. Financial Institutions. It is highly likely that youhave already received this type of notice which appears to havecome from your financial institution. It goes something likethis:
We are glad to inform you that our bank has anew security system. The new updated technology will ensure thesecurity of your payments through our bank. Hoping youunderstand that we are doing this for your own safety wesuggest you to update your account this update will maintainthe safety of your account. All you have to do is complete ouronline secured form. Thank you .
Comment: No financial institution will require you torespond to an email asking you to update your account. Inaddition I left in the typos punctuation errors and overallpoorly worded request just as it is. Finally many of thesescams do not go to account holders as the phishers spam emailaccounts in the hope that someone will take the bait.
2. Paypal Account. This scam is giving Paypal/eBay fitsas its says that billing information must be updated by you therecipient of the notice. Verbiage is included whereby “Paypal”threatens to close your account if you do not respond moneywill be withheld etc.
Comment: The first time I saw this note I thought: huh?!The nerve of Paypal! However I forwarded the letter to Paypalwho confirmed its scammy nature.
3. ISP Fraud. An internet service provider has seen anumber of “their” letters surface in emails around the US. Acommon request goes something like this:
DearComcast customerWe recently attempted to charge your account but we seem toreceive an error when charging your card. This sometimes occursfor a variety of reasons including card expiration over limitsuspicion of fraud or several other technical difficulties.Please visit the Comcast Service Center by clicking on thehyperlink shown below and update your information so this issuecan be resolved.
Comcast Service Center
Thank you
Chris Hammonds
Comcast Service Department
Comment: Another request to obtain valuable informationbelonging to you. I have seen 34 variations of this letter allallegedly from Comcast.
Oftentimes phishers will go to great lengths to copy thecompany’s logo and other pertinent information and include thatwithin the email. Almost without fail they provide a link foryou to click on so that you will go to a site thinking that itis legitimate.
Once at the scam site all kinds of questions will be asked ofyou including: social security number credit card informationyour address and more. The more information you give theeasier it will be for you to become a victim of identity theftas the perpetrators assume your identity and open up multipleaccounts in your name.
Usually the consumer knows nothing of the scam until theyreceive letters demanding payment for accounts opened up intheir name calls from creditors and rejected creditapplications because of assumed bad credit.
The best defense of course is to not respond to the email.However you can play an important part in stopping phishingfraud by forwarding a copy of the message to the company beingmimicked. Their fraud department will be grateful and you willhelp them as well as policing authorities in their quest tostop phishers in their tracks.
About the writer: S. Kumar is the webmaster and owner of Learnhomebusiness.com the site he started from a remote village in India and took it to one of the top ranked sites in the world!. Immediately Subscribe to his Free 1000 Gift Series’ before it wanishes!
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