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Identity Theft - Don't Be a Phishing Victim

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Identity Theft Crooks Have a New Scam

Identity theft is possible if you fall for “phishing” ploy

A fairly recent tool used by identity theft scammers is the concept of “phishing” where a seemingly legitimate e-mail message tries to get you to submit financial information over the Internet. Here’s what you should do.

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identity theft victim

Phishing is the latest tool used by identity theft scammers

The message began, “Dear valued eBay member” This seemingly legitimate e-mail message, purporting to be from the Safe Harbor department at online auction house eBay, informed me that my account had been suspended due to “suspicious activity” on my account. I was then urged to click on a link in the message, which would take me to a page on the eBay site, where I could “verify” my personal account information. It’s certainly nice of eBay’s security team to worry about my account and the suspicious activity conducted with it. There’s just one problem - nothing contained in the message is true.

This message is an example of “phishing”, a popular new tool among identity theft and credit theft thieves. Criminals on the Internet, determined to obtain vital personal financial information that can be exploited, are sending out e-mail messages by the millions each and every day, targeting users of well-known financial institutions with legitimate-looking inquiries. Most of them suggest dire consequences for anyone who ignores them, cancelation of the account being the most common. The messages, at least on their surface, certainly look to be real. How can a consumer who is genuinely worried about the security of his or her financial information tell a real message from a fake one?

There are several clues to whether a message is a phishing expedition or a real one. The first clue will come from the greeting. “Dear Wells Fargo customer” would be an odd greeting for a real Wells Fargo customer to receive in an e-mail message. After all, if you do business with Wells Fargo, they probably know your name, and they would use that name in the greeting. The same applies to eBay, PayPal, or any other financial institution.

Watch out for misspellings. Many of these identity thieves are located in foreign countries, where English is not the common language. Often the messages, which look correct at a glance, are full of hysterically misspelled words and bad grammar.

Check the links themselves in the e-mail message. If you move your mouse over a link in an e-mail message, most e-mail programs will show you the URL or Internet address to which the link points. Often in phishing messages, what the link says and where the link goes are two different things. The link may say “www.wellsfargo.com” but the actual address may be a series of numbers, such as “213.126.100.256” or a similar URL to the real one, like “www.wellsfargo.com.info.” Look out for these types of links.

The solution to avoiding being caught in a phishing scam is not to respond to such messages. If you do business with a bank, online payment company, credit card company or eBay, and you need to contact them, do so directly. Go to their Website, or call them on the phone if you have any questions. Don’t respond to e-mail messages that may or may not have come from the real company. It’s better to be safe than sorry, and it pays to be suspicious. If you are not, then you may become the latest victim of identity theft.

 

 

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