Posts Tagged ‘phishing’

The FBI and Better Business Bureau Wednesday put out a warning to exercise caution before donating to organizations claiming to be charities that will send financial assistance to Haiti.
“Apply a critical eye,” said the FBI in a statement, and do “due diligence before responding to those requests.”
“Be cautious about online giving, especially in response to [...]

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning the public about false emails asking people to register for a CDC-sponsored mandatory vaccination program.Â
“Users that click on the email are at risk of having malicious code installed on their system,” according to the CDC announcement.
The fraudulent e-mails claim to be from the U.S. Centers for [...]

More than 50 people have been indicted in Southern California, Las Vegas and Charlotte, N.C., in connection with a “phishing” scheme to steal bank account information from thousands of victims in the United States, authorities said Tuesday.Â
The three alleged ringleaders, all California residents, were identified by the FBI as Kenneth Joseph Lucas, 25, of Los [...]

A 30-year-old Sacramento man has pleaded guilty to defrauding Wal-Mart stores using identities stolen through phishing attacks.  He targeted eBay and small financial institutions.  Many of the victims were PayPal users.  Police discovered thousands of stolen identities on his computer, together with incriminating chat logs, phishing site templates, counterfeit credit cards and a shotgun.Â
Tien Truong [...]

Now that you have filed your taxes be sure and follow these helpful tips to protect you sensitve information:

When storing a copy of your tax return on your computer, make sure you secure it with a password so that your SSN cannot be read if the file is lost.
Securely delete all electronic, financial documents used to [...]

The FBI and “The Oprah Winfrey Show” say Internet users should beware of an e-mail scam disguised as the “Oprah Millionaire Contest Show.”
The FBI says as part of the scam, the e-mail sender requests contact information. It also asks recipients to buy a plane ticket in exchange for a promised seat to Winfrey’s popular Chicago-based [...]

Officials recently warned small businesses owners not to respond to letters appearing to have been sent by the Small Business Administration, asking for banking information in order to qualify for tax rebates.
The warning, issued on Feb 18, cites that the fraudulent letters were sent out with what appears to be an SBA letterhead to small [...]

If you receive a letter or notice from the IRS which leads you to believe someone may have fraudulently used your Social Security Number, respond immediately to the name and address or phone number printed on the IRS notice.
If you receive a letter from the IRS that indicates more than one tax return was filed [...]

A common way identity theft happens today is through a method known as Phishing.  Identity thieves pretend to be financial institutions or companies and send you an email or pop up message.  There goal is to get you to reveal your personal information such as passwords, account numbers, and Social Security numbers.
Be very cautious on the [...]

The Internal Revenue Service is warning the public about an identity theft e-mail scam.  The e-mail has a cover letter from a person identifying herself as IRS public relations employee Laura Stevens, who instructs recipients to fill out the attached W-4100B2 form.
The attached form W-4100B2 does not exist but is similar to the IRS’ W8-BEN [...]