Yuma Police Cautions City People about Phishing Scam

Police in Yuma (Yuma City, Arizona, USA) of late cautioned local inhabitants that phishing scams were on the prowl which thieves had designed for enticing victims in a way that they would divulge personal information via persuasive spoofed e-mails containing web-links to phishing sites, published yumasun.com during the 2nd-week of October 2013.

Such e-mails normally attempt at attracting victims' attention via statements like someone has fraudulently accessed the e-mail recipient's account alternatively, there is need to make his personal information up-to-date to maintain security.

The Yuma Police Department explains that a person to become victimized gets one phishing e-mail posing as a message from genuine organizations such as PayPal, eBay or any bank. The e-mail has one attachment and/or web-link leading onto one of the organizations' site. This site is actually a fake where on landing the victim is asked for his username and password.

Once the requested details are submitted, scammers become equipped with the very data with which they can fraudulently access the victim's original A/C.

But, there are ways to remain safe from these mishaps.

First, users require checking for any misspellings in the incoming e-mail. Often such spelling mistakes occur when scammers aren't based at the country where the e-mail circulates.

Second, there may be punctuation errors or text written in capital letters indicating that the e-mail is illegitimate.

Third, no genuine organization will ever dispatch e-mail asking for the recipient's username and password for information update, unlike in the above instance where PayPal, eBay or certain bank directs the user for making personal information up-to-date. So such an e-mail is hoax and the recipient requires verifying its content by contacting the sender directly.

Fourth, an e-mail of the kind must be labeled as spam followed with erasing it wholly.

Over and above, one must not ever provide personal information like password, user ID number etc. via e-mail.

Still, in case anyone has already become a victim of the above kind of scam then he must forward the message to www.ic3.gov. Further lodging one complaint with YPD through their hotline number may also be appropriate, YPD suggests.

» SPAMfighter News - 11/5/2013