Phishing E-mail Victimizes Connecticut Woman

Connecticut residents have been urged to watch out for a phishing e-mail scam doing the rounds on the Net, following a news that phishers have defrauded a woman in the state.

Connecticut Police said - the woman, who lives in East Granby (Connecticut, USA), received an e-mail purporting to be from a person of her bank, as reported by Registercitizen on January 4, 2010.

Informing the woman of a crisis, the fraudulent e-mail said that some third-party had accessed her account and it was important for her to click on a web-link and update her account details. The woman did exactly what was mentioned in the e-mail. After two days, she found that all the money had disappeared from her account, the Police said.

The Police also said that when the woman called her bank, they told her that they wouldn't ever request for private information via electronic mail.

The crime was reported to the Police on December 28, 2009.

During September 2009, the woman's bank alerted its customers about this type of scam. This means that the phishing scam has been going on since that time.

Thus, the Police suggest that if anyone gets a doubtful e-mail, he shouldn't reply to it unless he's sure of its sender.

Accompanying such warnings of suspicious e-mails, some government agencies such as the US Better Business Bureau have asked residents to be cautious during the upcoming census. Nevertheless, the country has already started witnessing census-related scams in which people mostly pretending to be census-takers but try to 'phish' respondents off personal information.

Furthermore, users should avoid clicking on e-mail links that solicit their private details. Additionally, if any user doubts the genuineness of an e-mail, he should enter the URL inside his Web-browser directly by typing it or contact the firm. Using any information like phone numbers given within a suspicious e-mail should also be avoided.

Security analysts state that any individual, who suspects that a scam e-mail has tried to phish him off his information, should report it to the National Consumers League's fraud center. Similarly, he should also report any other phishing e-mail even if it didn't fall to the scam.

Related article: Phishing With A Redirector Code

» SPAMfighter News - 1/13/2010