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Protect Yourself From Scams Involving the Internet
Fraudsters take advantage of innocent consumers daily through Internet, check, ATM (automated teller machine) scams. Scammers use the latest technology to make it harder and harder to detect if your transactions are legitimate. Knowing the latest trends in the scamming industry can help you protect yourself from being victimized.
Phishing
An Internet scam called phishing is leading to identity theft and personal financial losses for individuals.
Phishing incidents take center stage in Internet scams as they've increased dramatically in popularity in the past year. Phishers use the Internet to steal money and personal identities.
Victims usually receive fraudulent e-mails containing authentic looking company logos and familiar graphics and are asked to divulge financial information.
This is called "spoofing." Most heavily "spoofed" are eBay, PayPal, and some major banks. Spoofing is like writing someone else's name and return address on a letter instead of your own. With phishing scams, the company that is being spoofed has nothing to do with the fraudulent activity. Their name is just being used to coax you into the scheme, into believing that the letter is coming from them when it really is not.
These phony e-mails will request you fill out your name, social security number, credit card information, or other confidential information. Phishing is an attempt to steal confidential personal and financial information.
A study by the Gartner technology research firm shows 52 million U.S. Internet users received phishing e-mail during the past 12 months, from which 1.8 million consumers divulged information and one million fell victim. While consumers at banks and credit unions are prime targets, AOL and eBay users also are victims of frequent attacks.
DO NOT respond to e-mails with links in them that take you to a website that requests confidential, personal financial information, even if they look like they're from a reputable company. If the e-mail came from a company with whom you do business, call the company and inquire if they sent the e-mail. If it came from a company with whom you don't do business, you can be 99.9% certain it's a phishing scam.
If you receive a suspicious-looking e-mail:
- Verify that the e-mail is authentic by calling the company that sent it to verify that they actually sent it.
- Another option is to visit the website of the company the suspicious e-mail appeared to come from by typing the company's known website address in your browser's address bar.
If you clicked on a link in an e-mail that you may now suspect to be a phishing scam, and provided your confidential information:
- Follow the instructions provided at http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/. Review the instructions at least once a year to have an understanding of what is recommended procedure, and keep a printout available in the event you must follow them.
- If you entered your credit card information, contact your credit card company immediately to get a new card issued and the current one deactivated. Explain what happened so that you can be sure that no unauthorized charges were made to your credit card.
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