Phishing is hot in the summertime!

| Print | E-mail |

Here's some bait that's being dangled.

Phishing is a scam that's hot no matter the season. Phishing scams are after your personal and financial information. Phishing messages look like they are from legitimate businesses but they aren't.

• Some of the most active phishing scams right now typically request that you "correct" account or billing information. Scammers send emails falsely claiming to be from real web businesses and financial institutions. AOL for example, reports that the five most active phish scams reported by their members include eBay, PayPal, AOL billing, Wells Fargo bank, and Amazon.com.
  
  Remar's December 2005 report: You Don't Have to be Phished describes phishing in more detail and provides actual examples.
• You can also be caught by a phishing scam over the phone. Scammers are posing as bank officials calling about irregularities in your bank account. The scammers are taking advantage of the fact that banks sometimes do call their customers. Bottom line: don't provide account and personal information over the phone unless you initiate the call using the bank's phone number off a recent statement. If you received a call from a bank or other financial institution, even if it claims to be from the fraud department, say you'll call them back and use the number on your statement. If you get a voice mail message, don't call the number they leave—again call the number on your statement.
• Another hot scam is fake checks. Many of these scams involve counterfeit cashier's or certified checks. You may receive these checks in response to a legitimate activity that you are pursuing such as selling an item or offering a service. Typically, you are asked to send money from the check to back to the sender or another party. These are variants of an old scam known as the "Nigerian scam." Bottom line: Don't agree to a deal where they want to send a check for more than the amount. If one is sent anyway, don't deposit or cash checks where you've been asked to send a portion of the money somewhere else. Read more about these scams in Remar's report: Fake Check Scams Are Targeting Your Wallet.

Breaking news analysis prepared for Corning CU by Remar Sutton & Associates, June 2006.