Police Caution the General Public of Online Scams

According to Canada's Chatham-Kent Police, scam e-mails are landing into people's inboxes apparently sent from the Government of Canada's Department of Revenue, published The Chatham Daily News dated September 14, 2011.

A sample e-mail was posted so police could caution the public. That e-mail told the recipient that following his last year's fiscal computation, the Department of Revenue had figured out that he was entitled for a tax rebate valuing 282 CAD. The reimbursement could be traced online and the recipient could obtain the form to claim the same via clicking on a specified field. The message then signed off in the name of the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance Government of Canada.

Incidentally, there were many web-links inside the e-mail suggested for clicking. However, according to Police, the e-mail represents another fraud crafted for gleaning citizens' private details. The act is called "phishing." In case a victim gives away the details, those can be exploited for committing theft.

One more e-mail scam that the majority of people are getting consists of the appeal for cash. Residents must be wary about these scams, the Office of the Sheriff suggests. Thus anyone getting an e-mail asking for personal information or appealing for money must confirm the sender's circumstances and identity prior to taking action.

Additionally, another case involves an e-mail that a citizen gets regarding a flight booking, which he didn't make.

Reportedly, this electronic mail, thanking the recipient for his purchase, informs him that his booking has been validated under the number K4QCTI. A sum of $438.60 (CAD) has been debited to his credit card, while the user requires visiting aircanada.com for printing out the receipt/itinerary by opening a given web-link namely https://book.aircanada.com/pl/AConline/en/...or https://book.aircanada.com/pl/AConline/en/.... for annulling the booking, the message concludes.

This too represents an online fraud, says the Chatham-Kent cops and so it's urging residents for remaining wary of attempts at acquiring data to execute an illegal operation. Meanwhile investigation is ongoing into this issue.

Police stated that the above scam e-mails were getting extremely popular and weren't formatted in the same way. Thus, end-users must exercise great caution when following any web-link.

Related article: Police Arrests Six Suspects Associated With TJX Credit Scam

» SPAMfighter News - 9/24/2011