Scammers Targeting Muskogee Residents with Phishing E-mails

Law enforcement agencies in Muskogee, Oklahoma, US, have released a warning to the local residents that two e-mail scams have been launched in this area, as reported by muskogeephoenix on November 22, 2008.

The first e-mail scam involves a letter with a subject "award claim notification" and claims that the recipient has won $75,810. The address from where the e-mail arrived is located in Nova Scotia. Moreover, the e-mail encloses a cheque for $3,995.50 from a Maine-based bank. The letter directs the recipient to get in touch with the company for receiving the grand prize and to get information of taxes.

The second e-mail scam is brought into light by Joe Hughart, Chief of Fort Gibson Police Department. This e-mail scam seems to be run by Wal-Mart and claims that $90 would be deducted from the recipient's account.

Moreover, it encourages recipients to participate in a survey that looks for personal information. In fact, the survey could be an online scam called "phishing" that attracts people with a cash reward and make them reveal their private information.

Charles Pearson, County Sheriff, Muskogee, said that several calls have been made to his department informing about a more threatening scam, as reported by muskogeephoenix on November 22, 2008. He further added that one caller informed that people running the scam are hit-men who threat to kill the victim if they do not give ransom.

The most disturbing aspects of these scams are rising sophistication level. Amateur criminals can't run such highly sophisticated scam. It seems that organized criminals who have expertise in software and hardware applications from Eastern Europe or Asia are linked with people having similar or complimentary skills in Western Europe and the US.

Besides, the prizes mentioned in scams are valuable secrets that range from personal information to intellectual property of global corporations.

There has been a significant increase in the number of phishing scams in recent days. In a similar incident, Ypsilanti Area Federal Credit Union located in Ann Arbor released a warning to its member about bogus messages sent by cyber criminals who made reference to the credit union for accessing bank accounts.

Related article: Scammers Exploit Tax System Resulting in ID Theft

» SPAMfighter News - 12/8/2008