Tazewell County Residents Cautioned of Phishing E-mail

The Sheriff's Office in Tazewell County (Virginia, USA) has alerted netizens to remain vigilant of an ongoing e-mail scam via Facebook, which has erupted across Tazewell.

Residents are told to be wary of a fake e-mail trying to deceive recipients into wiring money apparently to the UK. The e-mail, which is being distributed among Facebook users, looks authentic since it poses as a message from a friend of the recipient.

The message says that the friend, who has been robbed of his credit card and money, is marooned and unable to return home from London. Thus, to help him, the e-mail recipient should wire money to a UK address so that he can buy a plane ticket and fly back home.

The security researchers state that the e-mail's author accesses the Facebook account and tries to capture its owner's username and password. The fraudster associated with the Tazewell County incident changes the e-mail address of the account owner and converts it into an "operamail" ID. Consequently, the response e-mails get redirected. Here the researchers add that online crooks have become increasingly crafty and sophisticated while framing tales for phishing or spoof messages.

Major Chris Boyd, Deputy Sheriff, Tazewell County, states that it is vital that users keep their usernames and passwords properly guarded, as reported by Swvatoday on January 6, 2010. The Major suggests that users should set different passwords to access different services as well as reset them regularly.

In case anyone has received a scam message, he must alert his family and friends and ask them to create a fresh account. The person can also notify the related social network like Facebook in this instance so that other members can be prevented from becoming a victim of scam e-mail.

Finally, users are suggested not to use their real name, or any personal particular related to the real-world, in response to a scam e-mail, particularly on social networking websites. The reason is anyone can, without difficulty, access this personal information, thus making its owners susceptible to online exploitation through scam e-mails.

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» SPAMfighter News - 1/19/2010