CIS News: Latest phishing scam

Latest phishing scam - don't get hooked!

Posted on February 1, 2006 01:25 PM

A new phishing scam has been sited in the Brown computing community and some individuals have already reported that they suspect they've become victims of identity theft. The perpetrators send official-looking emails using names such as Federal Credit Union, Amazon, VISA or PayPal.

The messages contain warnings that your account has been locked down due to suspicious use, requiring that you provide certain details to reactivate the account. One scam going around Brown now claims that someone has charged 30 days of pornography-related services to your account - and this certainly gets people concerned enough to react. Never reply to such a message! If you do suspect foul play, contact your service directly (by phone or an email initiated by you).

To compound the threat of robbing you of important confidential information, many of these emails contain viruses as well. Unfortunately institutions of higher education are especially targeted.

This recent onslaught is due in part to vulnerable computers that have become infected with a virus/worm, and as a result, are spewing out these email messages. These have the potential for infecting others as well as gathering confidential information. Brown's email spam filters have been updated to handle these, but we expect new variants to come out quickly and encourage everyone to remain vigilant.

To protect your identity as well as your computer, take the following actions:

Never open unexpected attachments.
Keep your antivirus software current. Free downloads (for Brown students, staff and faculty) are available at http://software.brown.edu/dist/tw-av.html.
Be very wary of any request to go to a web site to input personal information, verify your account, etc. You can't be too careful.
If you do receive online requests for personal information, contact the requester yourself to verify that the request is legitimate.
Keep a list of all credit card numbers and other important accounts in a secure location - along with phone numbers to their customer service departments.
If you are victimized, get a police report immediately and contact fraud prevention units in the companies you do business with.

For more tips and links to other sources, see the article Your Identity - Don't Get Caught Without it!, and visit the Anti-Phishing Working Group's website.

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CIS News « Computer worm poised to delete files on 2/3 \| Main \| The Computing in the Humanities Users' Group presents » Latest phishing scam - don't get hooked! Posted on February 1, 2006 01:25 PM A new phishing scam has been sited in the Brown computing community and some individuals have already reported that they suspect they've become victims of identity theft. The perpetrators send official-looking emails using names such as Federal Credit Union, Amazon, VISA or PayPal. The messages contain warnings that your account has been locked down due to suspicious use, requiring that you provide certain details to reactivate the account. One scam going around Brown now claims that someone has charged 30 days of pornography-related services to your account - and this certainly gets people concerned enough to react. Never reply to such a message! If you do suspect foul play, contact your service directly (by phone or an email initiated by you). To compound the threat of robbing you of important confidential information, many of these emails contain viruses as well. Unfortunately institutions of higher education are especially targeted. This recent onslaught is due in part to vulnerable computers that have become infected with a virus/worm, and as a result, are spewing out these email messages. These have the potential for infecting others as well as gathering confidential information. Brown's email spam filters have been updated to handle these, but we expect new variants to come out quickly and encourage everyone to remain vigilant. To protect your identity as well as your computer, take the following actions: Never open unexpected attachments. Keep your antivirus software current. Free downloads (for Brown students, staff and faculty) are available at http://software.brown.edu/dist/tw-av.html. Be very wary of any request to go to a web site to input personal information, verify your account, etc. You can't be too careful. If you do receive online requests for personal information, contact the requester yourself to verify that the request is legitimate. Keep a list of all credit card numbers and other important accounts in a secure location - along with phone numbers to their customer service departments. If you are victimized, get a police report immediately and contact fraud prevention units in the companies you do business with. For more tips and links to other sources, see the article Your Identity - Don't Get Caught Without it!, and visit the Anti-Phishing Working Group's website.
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