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These messages are usually quite convincing; they have become much better in quality in recent months. Previously, many of them were text-based and contained may typographical errors. More recent examples of these messages look quite official, are built around HTML and include the actual graphics and logos of the companies in question. It is often difficult to distinguish between a real message from Wells Fargo and a fake one put together by a criminal who wants to steal your identity.
Until recently, there wasn’t much that could be done about these scams, which show up in most inboxes 10-20 times per day. All you could do was delete them and wish that they would go away. There may be a partial solution now, however. The Federal Trade Commission is interested in having citizens forward such messages to them so that they might track down the people responsible for them. It’s a long shot, but if enough people submit them, some of the criminals might get caught.
The Federal Trade Commissions Complaint Form allows you to complain about any number of business practices that may not be legitimate. The agency’s job is to track down the perpetrators of these problems in order to better protect American consumers. Alternatively, if you don’t want to fill out a long form, you can simply forward the offending e-mail messaage to the FTC at spam@uce.gov
The only way to reduce or eliminate these financial crimes is to help the government in any way possible. In order to do that, you should forward these phishing messages to the FTC and let them see if they can track them down. They have already been successful in one case in California after citizens forwarded millions of e-mail messages that helped them track down the criminals. Do your part to end spam and phishing. Pass it on.
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