New Phishing Scam Targets MIDCOM Consumers

A fresh phishing e-mail campaign is aiming at Internet users, who've subscription accounts with South Dakota (US) based Midcontinent Communications, the company that offers Internet, cable TV and common telephony services.

The fraudulent phishing e-mail directs MIDCOM consumers that they should make their account details up-to-date by sending their password and user identification to the company over e-mail. In addition to asking for the login details of personal accounts, the e-mail solicits subscribers to send their name and birth date.

The scam message then warns that failure to respond can result in the closure of the customer's account.

Commenting on these phishing e-mails, Mark Jackley, Attorney General (South Dakota), stated that such notices were singularly designed to gather private account information of users to carry out fraudulent operations, as reported by Rapidcityjournal on June 30, 2010.

Besides, Jackley reiterated to all South Dakotans that they shouldn't provide their private details over e-mail unless they were certain about the legitimacy of the request. The AG advises that end-users should exercise utter caution when anyone approaches them for their financial or other personal information whether over the telephone or via e-mail.

Meanwhile, the representatives of Midcontinent said they didn't request any of the mentioned details from the company's customers and wouldn't even do so.

Additionally, customers were told that there were misspellings in the e-mails that suggested their phishing intent.

If any Midcontinent subscriber thinks he has been victimized by the e-mail scam, then he may call the helpline number of the Consumer Protection Division or log into its 'consumerhelp@state.sd.us,' it was emphasized.

According to the security researchers, the above kind of phishing scams chiefly culminates into ID thefts. Consequently, more-and-more Americans are falling prey to this danger.

Because of this, June 2010 was observed as the National Internet Safety Month at the initiative of the United States Senate. Throughout the period (month), law enforcement agencies, Internet security companies, community leaders, educators and volunteers put more efforts to increase the US people's awareness about the risks associated with the Internet, especially the dangers of ID-theft an outcome of phishing.

Related article: New Zealand Releases Code To Reduce Spam

» SPAMfighter News - 7/10/2010