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PHISHING AND PHARMING SCAMS
Phishing attacks are spoofed e-mails
and fraudulent web sites designed to fool consumers into divulging personal financial data such as account user names and
passwords, social security numbers, credit card numbers, etc. By hijacking the trusted brands of well known financial institutions,
on-line retailers, and credit card companies, phishers are able to convince up to 5 percent of recipients to respond
to them.
AVOID PHISHING SCAMS
Check to see that your browser is up to date and security patches are applied.
Be suspicious of any e-mail with urgent request for personal financial information. Read mail only from senders that you
know and do not open suspicious attachments.
Do not use links in an e-mail to any web page if you suspect the message
might not be authentic.
Regularly log into your on-line accounts and check your financial institution credit and debit
card statements to make sure that all transactions are legitimate.
Make sure you are using a secure web site when submitting
credit card or other sensitive information via your web browser.
Report Phishing or spoofed e-mails by forwarding the
e-mail to the following groups:
Anti-phishing network: www.antiphishing.com
Federal Trade Commission: www.consumer.gov/idtheft
Internet Fraud Complaint Center of the FBI: www.ifccfbi.gov.com
Pharming is a twist of phishing. Pharming attempts to fool on-line users through a virus that alters the behavior
of internet browsers, by redirecting users to a fictitious site when they attempt to log on to their financial institution's
web site.
This is done by changing some of the address information that internet service providers(ISP) store to
increase the speed of the web browsing. Some ISPs and companies have a software bug on their computer servers
that permits fraudsters to hack in and change those addresses.
Consumers can protect themselves by making sure they
land on special secure web pages that use encryption to protect data transfer, a standard practice for any financial web site.
Always look for the lock icon to confirm that the site with it is secure. It is displayed in the lower right corner
of your browser. The absence of this icon is a clue that something is wrong.
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