🚀 go-pugleaf

cuhulain__98@yahoo.com (The Ranger), Wrote:

>ID thieves `phish´ for victims with fake e-mails,
>Web sites

>By Mary Anne Ostrom
>Mercury News

>There's a new Internet fraud scheme you can
>add to your list: phishing. In what the FBI
>Monday called "the hottest, and most troubling,
>new scam on the Internet," criminals are
>sending out millions of fake emails to trick
>on-line consumers into divulging personal and
>financial information.

>The legitimate-looking emails appear to come
>from some of the Web's biggest sites, including
>eBay, PayPal, MSN, Yahoo and America
>Online, and big-name banks and retailers.

The problem seems to be of greater concern than I thought.

>In fact, tech-savvy criminals are collecting the
>information to commit credit-card fraud, identity
>theft and even unauthorized bank account
>transfers from unsuspecting consumers.

Our spammer friends are no longer content with having our enlarged penis
making money now with a mortgage on the house of lolitas with 6 beast
addresses to send money.  No more semblance of goofy pretense, just rob
one outright.

>The problem has mushroomed this summer,
>prompting a warning Monday from the Federal
>Trade Commission and FBI for consumers to
>beware of criminals fishing for personal
>identification and financial information.

The FBI is currently running ads on the radio warning folks of this
specific scam.

>"Call it 'phishing,' carding or brand spoofing, it's
>increasing in prevalence," said Eric A. Wenger,
>an attorney with the FTC who helped prepare
>the agency's first law enforcement action
>targeting the activity.

>The phishers spam consumers with bogus
>requests for a wide range of personal
>information, ranging from bank account
>information to credit card numbers to ATM
>PINs. They direct recipients to phony Web sites
>that closely resemble legitimate corporate sites.

>They hook consumers to give up personal
>information by claiming billing information
>needs to be updated or has been lost.

>In more brazen versions, the perpetrators
>actually suggest that the consumer is a victim
>of fraud and needs to share the information to
>avoid a fraudulent credit card charge or to
>prevent more fraud.

I certainly hope a felony theft charge is in order.

>Other times, the email offers a chance for a
>prize, a Mercedes-Benz CLK in one case, if a
>consumer shares personal data.

>Some of the culprits are sophisticated Web
>criminals. But some are just teens. Take the
>case of the 17-year-old Los Angeles-area youth
>who scammed more than $8,000 worth of
>goods and services, including a laptop and a
>subscription to on-line adult-oriented sites. He
>sent fraudulent e-mails to AOL subscribers,
>saying there was a problem with their accounts
>and asking for new credit card numbers. He
>used that information to set up accounts at
>eBay-owned PayPal, which he used to make
>the purchases.

I hope he spent so some jail time thinking about his actions.

>Assuming identities
>The defendant's AOL look-alike Web page
>directed consumers to enter the new card
>numbers. It also asked for mothers' maiden
>names, social security numbers, bank routing
>numbers, credit limits, and AOL screen names
>and passwords. The scheme allowed him to
>"plunder consumers' credit and debit card
>accounts and assume their identity online," the
>FTC said.

And now the victims have to dance every time they try to procure a loan.  

>The teen has settled with the FTC by paying a
>$1,400 fine,

That's it?  He stole $8,000.  And why settle with the FTC?  Why not the
FBI or local, state LEA?  Not even probation?  He committed grand
larceny.

>forfeiting some of the goods and promising
>never again to send junk e-mail,

???

>the agency said.

>That case, announced Monday, follows on the
>heels of a major brand spoofing case last
>month, when thousands of Best Buy customers
>received a junk e-mail declaring "Fraud Alert."

Maybe some good will come of this, being our elected officials finally
take spam seriously instead of being whores for the marketing gurus.

>Citing possible credit card fraud, the e-mails
>directed consumers to a "special Fraud
>Department page" supposedly run by Best Buy
>that asked for the recipients' Social Security
>and credit card numbers. News accounts about
>the phony Best Buy e-mails may have incited
>more criminals to act, said Linda Foley,
>co-director of San Diego-based Identity Theft
>Resource Center.

>And in one recent scam, e-mails supposedly
>from MSN said that technical difficulties arose
>with July 2003 billing updates. To avoid being
>terminated, the e-mail urged consumers to
>enter personal financial information at a "secure
>online account center." It also offered a bogus
>customer support phone number, but warned of
>an average 45-minute hold time on the phone.
Hmm, sounds familiar. <g>

>Microsoft confirmed it was a fraud.

<insert software ad hominem here>

>"The red flags are not always obvious," said
>FTC spokeswoman Claudia Bourne Farrell. In
>the case of the L.A. teen, when consumers
>clicked on the link, they landed on a site that
>contained AOL's logo, colors and even links to
>real AOL Web pages.

I can here the DMA response already, "it is free speech".

>If a consumer has even the slightest suspicion,
>"Do not ever click on those hyperlinks," she
>said.

The irony is that since ISP's in their pursuit to squeeze every last
nickel with their lax response to spam, may shoot themselves in the
proverbial foot if consumers become wary to engage in commerce over the
internet because of scams from spammers.  What lurks behind the flashing
ad sponser of your ISP?

>Summer uptick

>While the first reports of "phishing" date back
>two years, this summer has seen a noticeable
>uptick.

>"We've been bombarded with eBay and PayPal
>scams" recently, said Foley, seeking
>"everything about you but your blood type."
>Such bogus e-mailing prompted eBay last year
>to launch spoof@ebay.com, where people can
>forward suspicious e-mails. EBay said it will
>never ask for a password online. EBay
>spokesman Kevin Pursglove said the company
>has had about the same volume of complaints
>over the last six months but acknowledged that
>e-mail scammers are getting more
>sophisticated.

Unless Interpool along with each nations federal law enforcement
agencies go after internet scams with vigilance, the problem may magnify
to the point of some folks not choosing to do business online.  Look at
the amount of spam increase in just the past 2 years.  I know folks who
have given up on having an email address for personal use.

>"As our anti-fraud tools have more success,
>they are getting more brazen," he said.

>The Ranger

Thanks for posting this.

--
Keith

>--
>"Grits are akin to Elmer Paste with less flavor
>and more sand."


_____

"Cosmic upheaval is not so moving as a little child pondering the death
of a sparrow in the corner of a barn." -Anouk Aimee, French Actor
_____

"Death is better, a milder fate than tyranny", Aeschylus (525BC-456BC),
Agamemnon
_____

"I wear no Burka." - Mother Nature

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