| Dear Customer:
Another type of e-mail scam has become more common. This scam attempts
to steal credit card or other sensitive information from you by pretending
to be a message from your bank or other institution and asking for information
that you would not normally provide, such as credit card, bank account,
or social security information.
The scam is called "phishing" - as in "fishing for information."
Most commonly, the e-mail directs you to a web page that looks legitimate,
but is really a scammer web site. You are directed to enter your sensitive
account data. They often say they are updating or confirming their records.
Now the scammer has information that can be used to gain access to your
funds or make purchases and charge it to you.
We have seen "phishing" e-mails imitating Citibank, EBay, PayPal, and
others.
(1) If you receive such a request, be suspicious. I have never seen
a legitimate institution requesting such information in an e-mail. You
should ignore and delete any such requests. If you think it might be
real, call them to confirm.
(2) If you wish to report it, forward the e-mail as an attachment to
the "abuse" address of the institution - for example abuse@citibank.com.
(3) Filters have been developing to catch these "phishing" e-mails.
As they continue to develop in the future, CyberNet will incorporate
them into our filter database.
(4) CyberNet will never ask you for sensitive information, such as your
credit card number, in an email. If you ever get such a request, please
let us know. We are not aware of any "phishing" expeditions imitating
the CyberNet site.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. And, as always,
we thank you for being a customer!
Gene Perla, President
CyberNet Communications
Last Updated: 21 Aug 11
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