AG of Virginia Warns Locals about Phishing Emails

Wdbj7.com reported on 9th March, 2015 stating that Attorney General Mark Herring is warning Virginians about a phishing email scam which is currently targeting them in the wild.

The fake emails claim to be a "Final Legal Notification" from Herring, Attorney General or his staff regarding a debt owed to "Cash Advance, Inc," or something else informing the recipient that an "arrest warrant" has been issued to the recipient. The emails also ask for payment from the recipient to solve the issues and in some cases, scammers following up by making phone calls to the recipients perpetuating the fraud.

The Office of the Attorney General does not operate in such type and so the recipient should not respond to such emails or phone calls.

The Virginia State Police is presently conducting a criminal investigation about this matter. The AG office advises that if you have received an email and/or phone call of the above type please forward the email to the state police at question@vsp.virginia.gov.

In phishing scams, scammers normally pose as genuine organisations or persons asking the victims about their personal information to enable them to steal identity and use the same to commit fraud. Phishing emails also may be used to steal money or load viruses or software to spy on the activity of the user. Officials highlight that scammer's attempts have become more advanced causing more difficulty in distinguishing from genuine messages.

Attorney General Herring advises you to keep the following guidelines in mind: Phishing emails normally contain poor grammar and wrong spellings and ask you to act immediately.

You should also use strong passwords for your email, computer and financial accounts which should include variations lowercase and capital letters, symbols and numbers of minimum 8 characters.

In addition, you should install updated anti-virus programs on your computer and should scan files and emails on regular basis.

Moreover, it is not only locals of Virginia who are being exploited by phishers. Even college students all over the state of West Virginia (US) were warned about employment scam emails after the news about the same appeared during the first week of February 2015.

» SPAMfighter News - 3/20/2015