Phishing!

Phishing scam: it decieves you and makes you lose all money you save through out your life. I believe that almost of all people might get an e-mail that induces you to confirm or identify your bank account to someone who claims that he or she needs your assistance to transfer a huge amount of money from some where else in earth to your bank account; this person also promises to share some interests for the bank account owner. If successful, your identification and your bank account will be used illegally regardless your authorization, and eventually you will lose everything which even a single will not be left for you!

I myself have just get several e-mails like what I have mentioned aboved; one of them disguised itself at my credit card company acquiring me to identify my bank account that I always use it to pay my credit balance in every month. Secondly, the like e-mails of Nigerian Funs Scam e-mail have been submitted to me relentlessly! This is one example of those e-mails I got:

" FROM: MR MARK ANDERSON
AUDITING AND ACCOUNTING UNIT. FOREIGN REMITTANCE DEPT.
AFRIBANK NIG. PLC
#125 WEDERAL RAOD, OWERRI IMO STATE
FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA Attention:

I am writing following the impressive information about your profile, your capability and reliability to champion this opportunity. In my department, we discovered an abandoned sum of (TEN million US dollars). In an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers who died along with his entire family in September,2004 in a ROAD ACCIDENT.

Since we got this information about his death, we have been expecting his next of Kin to come over and claim his money because we can not release it unless somebody applies for it as next of Kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking and financial policies but unfortunately we learnt that his supposed next of kin or relation died along side with him in the accident leaving no body behind to claim the money. It is therefore upon this discovery that I and other officials in my department now decided to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin or beneficiary to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and we don't want this money to go into the Bank treasury as unclaimed bills.

The Banking law and guideline here stipulates that if such money remained unclaimed after long period, the money will be transferred into the Bank treasury as unclaimed fund. The request for a foreigner as next of kin in this business is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and an indegine cannot stand as next of kin to the deceased family. We agreed that 30% of this money will be for you as foreign partner, in respect to the provision of a foreign account, 10% will be set aside for expenses incurred during this transaction and 60 % would be for me and my colleagues. I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is 100% hitch free and that you should not entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangements have been made for the transfer.

Thereafter I and my colleagues will visit your country for disbursement according to the percentages indicated. Get back to me for more information with your private, telephone and fax number for easy and effective communication. Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or e-mail the text of the application and I assure you that we can conclude this operation within ten banking days.

NOTE: Keep this very confidential and top secret.

May God be with you. Trusting to hear from you shortly. Peace and love always.

Best regards MR MARK ANDERSON (AFRIBANK)"

This e-mail is utterly untrustworthy. The United States by the Congress has enacted many statutory provisions to suppress this scheme such as: The Credit Card Fruad Act: 18 U.S.C. § 1029, The ID Theft Act: 18 U.S.C. § 1028, The State Anti-Fraud Laws, and the Proposal of the Anti-Phishing Act of 2005. This problem becomes more violent and commonplace around the world. It is worth mentioning it and the government of all contries through out the world should have paid the attention to this pending seriousness to people every day life.

Consequently, whenever you get the soliciting e-mail or information that induces you to provide your personal identify to them, and the link that asks you fulfill your information, don't put yourself in the risk and make yourself as a victim of this scheme!

You can conduct your self-help by informing every soliciting e-mails to the United States entities or Anti-phishing organization at http:// www.ftc.gov/ or http://www.antiphishing.org . Here are some interesting documents relating to this problem. You might read it and find the self-help method to protect yourself in the future.

Federal Trade Commission, How Not to Get ‘Hooked’ by a Phishing Scam

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/phishingalrt.htm

“We suspect an unauthorized transaction on your account. To ensure that your account is not compromised,please click the link below and confirm your identity.”
“During our regular verification of accounts, we couldn’t verify your information.Please click here to update and verify your information.”

Have you received email with a similar message? It’s a scam called “phishing” — and it involves Internet fraudsters who send spam or pop-up messages to lure personal information (credit card numbers, bank account information, Social Security number, passwords, or other sensitive information) from unsuspecting victims.
According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency, phishers send an email or pop-up message that claims to be from a business or organization that you may deal with — for example, an Internet service provider (ISP), bank, online payment service, or even a government agency. The message may ask you to “update,” “validate,” or “confirm” your account information. Some phishing emails threaten a dire consequence if you don’t respond. The messages direct you to a website that looks just like a legitimate organization’s site. But it isn’t. It’s a bogus site whose sole purpose is to trick you into divulging your personal information so the operators can steal your identity and run up bills or commit crimes in your name.

The FTC suggests these tips to help you avoid getting hooked by a phishing scam:

If you get an email or pop-up message that asks for personal or financial information, do not reply. And don’t click on the link in the message, either. Legitimate companies don’t ask for this information via email. If you are concerned about your account, contact the organization mentioned in the email using a telephone number you know to be genuine, or open a new Internet browser session and type in the company’s correct Web address yourself. In any case, don’t cut and paste the link from the message into your Internet browser — phishers can make links look like they go to one place, but that actually send you to a different site.

Use anti-virus software and a firewall, and keep them up to date. Some phishing emails contain software that can harm your computer or track your activities on the Internet without your knowledge.Anti-virus software and a firewall can protect you from inadvertently accepting such unwanted files. Anti-virus software scans incoming communications for troublesome files. Look for anti-virus software that recognizes current viruses as well as older ones; that can effectively reverse the damage; and that updates automatically.A firewall helps make you invisible on the Internet and blocks all communications from unauthorized sources. It’s especially important to run a firewall if you have a broadband connection. Operating systems (like Windows or Linux) or browsers (like Internet Explorer or Netscape) also may offer free software “patches” to close holes in the system that hackers or phishers could exploit.

Don’t email personal or financial information. Email is not a secure method of transmitting personal information. If you initiate a transaction and want to provide your personal or financial information through an organization’s website, look for indicators that the site is secure, like a lock icon on the browser’s status bar or a URL for a website that begins “https:” (the “s” stands for “secure”). Unfortunately, no indicator is foolproof; some phishers have forged security icons.

Review credit card and bank account statements as soon as you receive them to check for unauthorized charges. If your statement is late by more than a couple of days, call your credit card company or bank to confirm your billing address and account balances.

Be cautious about opening any attachment or downloading any files from emails you receive, regardless of who sent them. These files can contain viruses or other software that can weaken your computer’s security.

Forward spam that is phishing for information to spam@uce.gov and to the company, bank, or organization impersonated in the phishing email. Most organizations have information on their websites about where to report problems.

If you believe you’ve been scammed, file your complaint at ftc.gov, and then visit the FTC’s Identity Theft website at www.consumer.gov/idtheft. Victims of phishing can become victims of identity theft. While you can't entirely control whether you will become a victim of identity theft, you can take some steps to minimize your risk. If an identity thief is opening credit accounts in your name, these new accounts are likely to show up on your credit report. You may catch an incident early if you order a free copy of your credit report periodically from any of the three major credit bureaus. See http://www.annualcreditreport.com/ for details on ordering a free annual credit report.You can learn other ways to avoid email scams and deal with deceptive spam at ftc.gov/spam.

The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint or to get free information on consumer issues, visit http://www.ftc.gov/ or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.
June 2005


What is Phishing and Pharming?

http://www.antiphishing.org/

Phishing attacks use both social engineering and technical subterfuge to steal consumers' personal identity data and financial account credentials. Social-engineering schemes use 'spoofed' e-mails to lead consumers to counterfeit websites designed to trick recipients into divulging financial data such as credit card numbers, account usernames, passwords and social security numbers. Hijacking brand names of banks, e-retailers and credit card companies, phishers often convince recipients to respond. Technical subterfuge schemes plant crimeware onto PCs to steal credentials directly, often using Trojan keylogger spyware. Pharming crimeware misdirects users to fraudulent sites or proxy servers, typically through DNS hijacking or poisoning.

See the phishing archive at http://www.antiphishing.org/phishing_archive.html