Phishing e-mails

Date: March 02, 2007
Source: KFOXTV.com


t looks like an e-mail from your bank, or some other business you know. But it's actually a fake, a carefully crafted e-mail designed to scam you out of your private information.

It's called phishing, and Consumer Reports National Research Center estimates it has cost victims $630 million over the past two years. Here is how to keep from being fooled, hook, line and sinker, in this Consumer Watch Report.

Some of the e-mails look like they have come from legitimate companies like Wells Fargo Bank, Citi Bank, online payment service Pay Pal, and they are all bogus.

Take Pay Pal, the e-mail may state that your billing information records are out of date. And of course there is a link that has been provided for you to click and update your billing records.

You are then asked to provide your credit-card information and password. Lt. John Gould, who investigates scams like these for the Computer Crime Task Force, said don't fall for them.

"They will either open up bank accounts, they'll apply for charge cards in your name, they'll change the address so in most cases it will be two to three months before you realize that these charges have been made," Gould said.
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2007-03-08 11:52:11 - I always fill in their forms! Why? It... Mike Orton

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