Phishing and Fraud
Identity Theft is the fastest growing fraud on the Internet. It has now got totally out of hand and anyone with a computer with a connection to the Internet should beware of any emails they receive that request Personal Information.
These criminals have got very smart in their attempts to steal your information and use it to run up Credit Card debt, get into your Bank Account and steal your money or even worse steal your entire identity so that they can use it for a someone to impersonate you.
Not Me, you say! You have no idea how many people have said that and then found that all their passwords had been stolen and with the passwords went the contents of their bank account and everything else they accessed with a password on the Internet.
If you think you have been a victim of this type of fraud,
1. Change all your passwords
2. Notify your local police
3. Notify all of the companies you deal with online especially your bank and credit card companies.
A new service at one of the forums I work at, was started yesterday: You can go to http://castlecops.com/f122-Phishing_Fraud_and_Dastardly_Deeds.html
If you can send them the email you received then they will make sure they investigate it, and if proven to be a Phish attempt, they will report it to the FBI and other interested agencies, and then get the website shut down.
Beware of any email that requests personal information. Most sites that require a password now ask you to log in to your account and then give any information they require. Unfortunately, most of the emails now also ask you to log in to a fake site that looks exactly like the real site. By logging into the fake site, you have given away your password and any other information they can get you to voluntarily release.
There are a few programs that will help prevent you from logging in to these sites. If you are interested in using any of them you can find links to them in the forum at:
http://castlecops.com/f122-Phishing_Fraud_and_Dastardly_Deeds.html
The only way that we as individuals can fight this scourge is to post any suspicious emails into the Phishing Tool at castlecops or to any other site working to stop this. If you are a member of eBay or PayPal they have their own sites set up to get these websites shut down. The email address to send your suspicious email to is either spoof@ebay.com or spoof@paypal.com respectively.
Don't become a victim! Be suspicious of any email you receive that is from someone you do not know or from someone you do know that unexpectedly asks for personal information.