Dear Customer:
A new type of e-mail scam started in the
last year and has recently 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) So far, spam filters are not yet sophisticated
enough to catch these "phishing" e-mails. Hopefully, such filters will be
developed in the future and CyberNet will incorporate them into our spam
filter.
(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 |
