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David N. Kirkman
Task Force Alert Chair
Asst Attorney General
Consumer Protection
NC Department of
Justice
P.O. Box 629
Raleigh, NC 27602
919-716-6000

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North Carolina Division of Aging and Adult Services
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Identity Theft -"Phishing" Season In High Gear

This message is in follow-up to the attached September 21 (see below) Senior Fraud Alert concerning email messages from scammers posing as bank officials who are attempting to resolve unexpected problems with consumers' accounts. Task Force Co-Chair Maryanne Dailey of the BBB Consumer Foundation in Charlotte reports a substantial upward spike this week in consumer complaints to her agency about such "Phishing" messages. She invites all Task Force members to remind the public that these messages usually represent attempts at identity theft, accessing consumers' sensitive financial information, or the installation of spyware on consumers' computers. One should never open the links the bogus bankers include in such emails. Instead, the emails should be deleted promptly and then emptied from the computer's "trash" folder. Consumers should consider notifying their bank that they received such an email, especially if they responded to it by typing in requested account information.

******End of Alert******
January 7, 2005

 

Seniors and other consumers who use the Internet continue to receive E-mail messages from identity thieves posing as security officials with their banks. An alert on this scam was issued last year. Members of the Task Force continue to report such fraud attempts. Examples of two recent attempts appear below.

Both messages below came in the form of E-mails and bore the logo of a real bank. Clicking the web link on the E-mail transfers the consumer to an elaborate but fake bank security website. There the consumers are asked to input information on their accounts together with social security numbers-- the very information fraudsters need to steal a person's identity.



******END OF ALERT*****

September 21, 2004

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NC Senior Consumer
Fraud Task Force

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