Fraud Tips

Phishing (FISH.ing) pp. Phishing is a high-tech scam that uses spam or pop-up messages to deceive you into disclosing your credit card numbers, bank account information, Social Security number, passwords, or other sensitive information. -phisher n.

Example Citations:

Phishing is the term coined by hackers who imitate legitimate companies in email messages to entice people to share passwords or credit-card numbers. Recent victims include Bank of America, Best Buy and eBay, where people were directed to Web pages that looked nearly identical to the companies' sites.

Spoofing is pretending to be something it is not, whether an email, website, etc.

We suggest reporting "phishing" or "spoofed" emails to the following groups:

• Forward the email to reportphishing@apwg.org
• Forward the email to the Federal Trade Commission at spam@uce.gov
• Forward the email to the "abuse" email address at the company that is being spoofed (e.g. "spoof@ebay.com")

When forwarding spoofed messages, always include the entire original email with its original header information intact.

Notify the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) of the FBI by filing a complaint on their website: www.ic3.gov/complaint/default.aspx.

If you have given out your credit or debit or ATM card information:

• Report the incident to the card issuer as quickly as possible
• Many companies have toll-free numbers and 24-hour service to deal with such emergencies
• Cancel your account and open a new one
• Review your billing statements carefully after the loss

If the statements show any unauthorized charges, it's best to send a letter to the card issuer via regular mail (keep a copy for yourself) describing each questionable charge.

Your maximum liability under federal law for unauthorized use of your credit card is $50 (many financial services companies have different policies so be sure to check with each of them). If the loss involves your credit card number, but not the card itself, you have no liability for unauthorized use; in general, you may only be liable for a very small amount but always check with your card company for their exact policy.

• Your liability under federal law for unauthorized use of your ATM or debit card depends on how quickly you report the loss.
• You risk unlimited loss if you fail to report an unauthorized transfer within 60 days after your bank statement containing unauthorized use is mailed to you.

• Report the theft of this information to the bank as quickly as possible
• Cancel your account and open a new one

Some phishing attacks use viruses and/or 'Trojan Horses' to install programs called "key loggers" on your computer. These programs capture and send out any information that you type to the phisher, including credit card numbers, usernames, and passwords, Social Security Numbers, etc.

If this happens, it's likely you may not be aware of it.

To minimize this risk, you should:

• Install and/or update anti-virus and personal firewall software
• Update all virus definitions and run a full scan
• If your system appears to have been compromised, fix it and then change your password again, since you may well have transmitted the new one to the hacker
• Check your other accounts! The fraudsters may have helped themselves to many different accounts: eBay account, PayPal, your email ISP, online bank accounts, online trading accounts, and other e-commerce accounts, and everything else for which you use online password

Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personal information such as your name, Social Security number, credit card number or other identifying information, without your permission to commit fraud or other crimes. If you have given out this kind of information to a phisher, you should do the following:

• Report the theft to the three major credit reporting agencies, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion Corporation, and do the following:
  • Request that they place a fraud alert and a victim's statement in your file
  • Request a FREE copy of your credit report to check whether any accounts have been opened without your consent
  • Request that the agencies remove inquiries and/or fraudulent accounts stemming from the theft

• Federal Trade Commission
• USA.gov
• IdentityTheft.gov
• Justice.gov
• ic3.gov