More sophisticated phish scams coming your way

WASHINGTON (11/23/05)--Credit unions might want to alert members about the latest alert from the Internet Crime Complaint Center regarding the morphing of phishing scams into a new level of sophistication.

The typical phish scam has three steps:

  • The phisher deploys a website that mimics part of a legitimate financial institution or other e-commerce website.
  • With spam, the phisher e-mails hundreds of thousands of potential victims and pretends to be the legitimate institution or organization. The message notifies recipients of a "problem" with their account and instructs them to log into a linked site to "verify" account information.
  • The information is collected by the phisher and used to commit credit card fraud and identity theft-related offenses.

Now, there's a fourth step. The phisher captures the victim's login credentials when he enters an authentic website and downloads unique identifying information, such as the victim's first and last name. The phisher uses this data to populate parts of the "fake" website. By doing so, the phishing site appears more legitimate and the victim is more likely to divulge sensitive information.

Instruct members to never click on a link in such an e-mail or open a file attachment. Instead, delete the e-mail. Legitimate companies and financial institutions will never ask for personal financial information through an e-mail.

Recipients of phishing e-mails can file a complaint with the Internet crime Complaint Center. Use the resource link.

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Resource Links
Internet Crime Complaint Center
Phishing--Don't Take the Bait statement stuffer
Resources to fight phishing fraud


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