Identity Theft

Written by Radha Khalsa


Identity fraud topsrepparttar Federal Trade Commission’s list asrepparttar 118716 nation’s fastest growing crime, registering 43% of last years 380,000 complaints. Many of these cases were perpetrated throughrepparttar 118717 Internet. Affected companies include Bank of America, AOL, MSN, eBay, PayPal, and evenrepparttar 118718 IRS.

The Bank of America scam came through email, askingrepparttar 118719 receiver to go torepparttar 118720 website to verify their personal or financial information. Whenrepparttar 118721 enclosed email link is clicked,repparttar 118722 receiver is taken off to a look alike website where they are asked to enter their name and account number.

Another fraudulent email tells AOL users that their credit card has been declined and they must supply a new credit card number within 24 hours or their account will be shut down.

Others have received an email from eBay. The Identity Theft Resource Center (www.idtheftcenter.org) postedrepparttar 118723 following email on their site:

Dear eBay Customer, Your order has been completed and will be mailed within 24-48 hours. Your credit card has been charged $1460.50 forrepparttar 118724 following purchase...

( Micron Pentium III Computer )

Plus shipping and handling. If you feel that your credit card has been billed wrongly, please visit our site and fill out allrepparttar 118725 needed information to cancelrepparttar 118726 following order. http://ebayservices-cancelorder.cjb.net

Email Spam and Phishing

Written by Radha Khalsa


It seems likerepparttar volume of email spam has doubled inrepparttar 118715 last month. Increasingly, we receive daily emails for better mortgage rates, pharmaceutical discounts, and offers to enlarge body parts we don’t even have.

The next generation of sophisticated tools is available to email spammers. Hidden code can be embedded into email allowingrepparttar 118716 sender to track it. A “spam beacon” letsrepparttar 118717 sender know that this is a valid, live, email address. The sender can also tell if you’ve openedrepparttar 118718 email before you tossed it. “Nearly half of all spam is bugged with so-called "spam beacons" for tracking users who open junk mail, said e-mail filtering firm MX.”

The latest email scams have also evolved. The newest scams are called phishing attacks. Spammers copy and paste web coding, making their email message appear to be official. They provide links to “look alike” websites where they try to trick you into revealing your personal financial information, by asking you to update an account such as Ebay, PayPal or CitiBank (or other well known entities). Phishing attacks are successful 5% ofrepparttar 118719 time.

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