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Phishing Scam Exploiting FDIC to Target Bank Customers in Iowa

A second instance of phishing e-mails has surfaced in the last few months wherein phishing e-mails posed as messages from the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.) and targeted bank customers.

Banks have warned residents of Palo Alto County, IA (Iowa, USA) about the e-mail fraud, while the FDIC too alerted security officers about the scam on December 3, 2009.

The bogus e-mail tells the recipient that his bank is apparently one of the failing financial institutions and that's why the FDIC has taken control of its financial properties. Thereafter, it tells the recipient that he opens a web-link, which connects to the FDIC site, but it is in reality a phony one. Moreover, the site prompts the user to furnish his personal information like savings and checking account numbers.

The FDIC alert states that the phishing criminals, who are well aware of people's faith in the organization, have copied FDIC's seal and logo along with its correspondences and certificates in the phishing message, as reported by Bankinfosecurity on December 4, 2009.

Moreover, FDIC officials inform consumers that the organization doesn't ever dispatch electronic mails to them privately, and if any entity sends such an e-mail claiming to be the representative of the FDIC, then it would surely be illegitimate. Therefore, the current e-mail is totally a fake and in fact it is simply a phishing fraud.

Hence, the officials urged all people to watch out for e-mails that asked for personal information and if anybody received one, he should either delete or ignore it.

Anyone receiving the fake, phishing e-mail can report it by sending it to alert@fdic.gov or contacting the help-desk of FDIC.

The new phishing e-mail follows another one which similarly targeted banking customers during October 2009, saying that recipients must examine the insurance amount of their banking institutions held with the Deposit Insurance Fund of FDIC.

In the meantime, one more government agency that is often a target of phishing scams is the Internal Revenue Service, whereby the messages purporting to be from the IRS promise recipients i.e. taxpayers certain tax refund, but then ask for their sensitive details.

Related article: Phishing With A Redirector Code

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