Saskatoon Police Warn Against Fake Financial E-Mail Scam

Saskatoon (Canada) Police urges the public to be careful against phishing mails from unauthentic financial institutions circulating on the net and asking users about their banking details.

Phishing is a kind of scam in which attackers prompt users into revealing their private details like credit card number or password by setting up a fake Website which is similar to the authentic one.

The police reveals that authentic appearing e-mails are arriving in the users' inboxes and direct them to click on the subject line "Verify My Account Information". But the link takes the user to a fake site, which steals private details, if clicked.

In spite of alerts and more information about these scams as compared to the past, some users are still targeted by dubious e-mails. If the accounts are hacked, it requires a time consuming process to secure their online identity from the grasp of the hacker.

The police also added that the hackers could exploit anything once they obtain the stolen passwords. For instance, they search for credit card and bank details to acquire account numbers. Also, the hackers can access the elevated mail accounts to send a large amount of spam emails.

Further, the police remind online users that financial organizations do not ask their customers to reply through mails, so do not fall victim to this scam. The users were also told to secure all their private details and call their financial institutions to check their mail correspondence they may have.

Similarly, students and staff of Northern Illinois University (NIU) were also attacked by phishing e-mails recently, victimizing 30 or 40 of its Web users.

Also, the Web becomes a vector for cyber threats. Cases of spear phishing have already deceived users in the past and botnets have become famous among emerging economies across the world. As per the research by anti spam firm Sophos, complex polymorphic viruses (against more mundane Trojan horses) have become popular, and adware and worms are attacking social networking sites.

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» SPAMfighter News - 9/23/2008