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Phishing
is one of the latest cons used by high-tech criminals to
facilitate one of America's leading forms of fraud—identity theft.
Basically, the scam uses spam (unsolicited e-mail) to bait
consumers into disclosing sensitive personal information—such
as social security numbers, account and routing numbers,
credit card numbers, personal identification numbers, passwords,
and other private data.
According to the Federal
Trade Commission (FTC), the unsolicited e-mails give the
appearance of being from legitimate businesses. In fact,
fraudsters usually pick a business that the potential victim
actually does business with, such as a financial institution,
credit card company, or insurance company. The fraudsters
tell the e-mail recipients they need to"update" or "validate" their
billing information to keep their accounts
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active. To help set the hook, they
even direct their potential victims to a web site that imitates
the look of the legitimate web site—with logos,
colors, and designs to match. Unwittingly, consumers then submit
their information to the impostor, who then uses the personal data
to commit identity theft.
To avoid getting reeled into one
of these scams, the FTC offers the following guidance:
- If you get
an e-mail that warns you—with
little or no notice—that an account of yours will be
shut down or interest suspended unless you reconfirm your billing
information, do not reply or click
on the link in the e-mail. Instead, contact the legitimate
company cited in the e-mail using a
telephone number or web address you know to be genuine.
- Avoid
e-mailing personal and/or financial information.
- Look for the "lock" icon
on the browser's status bar before submitting financial information
through any web site. It signals that your information is secure
during transmission.
- Review credit card and account
statements as soon as you receive them
to determine whether there are unauthorized charges. If your
statement is late by more than a
couple of days, call your credit card company or financial institution
to confirm your billing
address and account balances.
- Report suspicious activity to the
FTC—send
the actual spam e-mail to uce@ftc.gov. If you
believe you've been scammed, file your complaint at www.ftc.gov,
then visit the FTC's identity
theft web site at www.ftc.gov/idtheft to learn how to minimize
your risk of damage from identity
theft. To help fight fraud, the FTC enters Internet, telemarketing,
identity theft, and other fraudrelated
complaints into Consumer Sentinel®— a secure, on-line
database available to hundreds of
civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and
abroad.
- Visit
www.ftc.gov/spam for other ways to prevent and avoid e-mail
scams and to learn how to deal with deceptive spam
As your financial
institution, we want to help you combat identity theft. One of
the best ways to fight
fraud is to educate yourself and be aware of a possible scam
before it happens to you. Be cautious when
providing information, and learn
the steps you can take to help protect your sensitive, personal
information in an attempt to stay ahead of
these criminals.
To file a complaint or get free information on
consumer issues, visit www.ftc.gov or call toll free to 1-
877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357) or TTY: 1-866-653-4261.
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Pembroke, NC |
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