VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: [1], 2, 3, 4 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 08:29:50 07/11/05 Mon
Author: Jimmy
Subject: Phishing schemes getting sneakier

Phishing schemes getting sneakier

Internet fraud is on the rise

By BETHANY CLOUGH

Fresno Bee


FRESNO - Someone on the other side of the world is ''phishing'' right now.

Their prize catch? Your money.

Phishing is a scam using e-mails that look like they're from banks or other
businesses and ask a computer user for a bank account number, Social
Security number or other personal information.

The scammers -- usually organized crime groups in Eastern Europe, Russia and
Africa -- use the information to transfer money out of your account, run up
a bill on your credit card or steal your identity. The computer fraud
increased 28 percent in the 12 months ending May 2005, according to the
Connecticut-based research firm Gartner Inc.

An estimated 73 million adults report they ''definitely'' received a
phishing e-mail, or a message that ''looked like one.'' More than 2 million
people lost a total of almost $929 million. The term ''phishing'' stems from
the ''phone phreakers'' of the 1970s who scammed their way into free
long-distance phone calls. Now, the scammers are fishing for information and
the name is a nod to their predecessors, says Peter Cassidy, secretary
general of the Anti-Phishing Working Group, a nonprofit research and
educational organization in Cambridge, Mass.

PayPal, an eBay-owned online system that sends and receives payments, is the
No. 1 organization phishers impersonate. The auction giant eBay is No. 2,
and Citibank is the primary bank target, followed by other big banks.

Often the scam e-mails alert a person to a problem -- an unauthorized
transaction on an account or information that needs to be verified.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, e-mails often read like this:
''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.''

The urgency often dupes people into clicking on a link that leads to a Web
site that looks exactly like their bank's site, including the company logo
and other information. Computer users are asked to fill in the information
boxes that look just like the ones banks use.

The impostor sites are gone two weeks later, leaving authorities little to
investigate. Clicking the link can download what is called a ''keylogger''
that sits quietly on your computer. It wakes up when you visit a banking
site and tracks the keystrokes you type, gathering your user name and
password and sending it to the scammer, Cassidy says.

Similar programs can search your hard drive for confidential information and
send it back to the scammer.

Programs can also be planted on your computer that redirect you to a fake
site when you type in the address of the real one. Computer users can also
be directed to fake sites when they make a spelling error in a Web address.

And results of searches can be poisoned, with fake sites showing up high on
a list when a person searches for an authentic company.

The scammers are hard to catch, says detective Kevin Wiens in the computer
crimes unit at the Fresno County Sheriff's Department.

''It's a very difficult investigation to do,'' Wiens says. ''We can take the
case... until it goes overseas, and then it ties our hands as to what we can
do about it.''

Local authorities contact federal agencies, including the FBI, Justice
Department and Secret Service, to investigate the crime.

The scam is becoming more sophisticated, with e-mail senders impersonating
smaller banks and credit unions. The University of Kentucky Federal Credit
Union was the target of a phishing attack this year.

''The criminals are real enterprising folks,'' says Scott Ingram, Education
Employees Credit Union's vice president of marketing. ''They're always
coming up with something new.''

''There's not anything we can do really,'' says Dan Doyle, president and CEO
of Central Valley Community Bank. ''It's a matter of trying to help educate
our customers, our consumers that these types of things are going on.''

Banks must reimburse individuals for money stolen, but they have more
discretion with business accounts, Cassidy says.

Although the number of computer users who fall victim to the crime is low,
the scam keeps spreading, Cassidy says.

''The phishers still keep at it, which tells me phishers are making enough
money to make a go of it.''

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]
[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.