Phishing Scam on the Prowl, Warns Bangor Police

According to the Police of Bangor (Maine, USA), scammers are employing a new e-mail and automatic phone system along with reputed local banks' names for duping people into divulging their financial and/or other personal information, as per the news published by IStockAnalyst on April 7, 2010.

Paul Edwards, Sergeant of Bangor Police, said on April 6, 2010 that the latest fraud scheme operates through an automatic phone call, e-mail or text message telling the recipient that someone has compromised his/her bank account, which he could, however, reactivate via providing his bank account or debit card number, according to the news published by IStockAnalyst on April 7, 2010.

According to the experts, the particular e-mail fraud is described as 'phishing.' That's because the scammer sets up a website which appears exactly same as the original one in order to trick end-users into revealing their sensitive and confidential details.

Edwards further added that perpetrators, in this latest scam are exploiting the names of two banks at a time- Merrill Bank and Machias Savings Bank to take potential victims into their confidence.

Machias Savings Bank's Website states that the Bank will never request anyone for his password, card or account number or any other personal information. The Bank wouldn't also dispatch anyone a text message or e-mail containing a Web-link. Furthermore, according to Machias Savings, the scam is part of ongoing phishing assaults; therefore, if anyone had been victimized with it he should contact the Bank right away.

Moreover, Edwards suggested that one can most appropriately stop scammers from gathering his private information via erasing dubious e-mails, overlooking suspicious texts or by just simply hanging up.

Simultaneous to the above phishing scam, one more phishing attack was noticed that used the same ploy. In this another attack, the fraudsters targeted customers of Bremer Bank (USA) with fake e-mails that told the recipients that their online banking access was discontinued. However, the service could be regained once they click on a given Web-link and confirm their identification details.

Security researchers, while remarking about this type of problem, stated that users must treat all those e-mails with suspicion that have an element of immediacy asking them to conform 'personal account information.'

Related article: Phishing With A Redirector Code

» SPAMfighter News - 4/16/2010