Phishing Scams Targeting Hickory Residents

As Hickory, situated in North Carolina (US), is reeling under the impact of the economic meltdown, its residents are being taken into yet another online scam involving phishing e-mails. The scam is a lottery fraud that curiously involves an unexpected e-mail.

Explaining the method in which the scam operates, Brett Porter, Police Sgt. Hickory says that the potential victim gets an e-mail announcing that he is the winner of a lottery and he could collect his prize money by wire-transferring between $500 and $40,000. While the scammer retains the sum, the victim has little to do than inform law enforcement, as reported by hickoryrecord on February 1, 2009.

Another Police Sgt. of Hickory named Randy Isenhour tried to make local residents understand that such scams were plenty. He thus penned down a letter titled 'Scams and Common Sense' which says that there is not a single day that he doesn't get a complaint from someone saying that a certain e-mail has limited or blocked the complainant's account. The message referred to, according to Isenhour, claims to be from the IRS asking for information to enable the agency to deposit the recipient's check under the economic stimulus plan, as reported by hickoryrecord on February 1, 2009.

In connection with such scams, IRS said that anyone receiving e-mail that says it is from IRS or allegedly directs the recipient to an IRS website should not open it although official it might appear by having the IRS logo. The agency also advised not to click any link or attachment in such e-mails as they might contain malware that could infect the computer.

Defining the objective of these e-mails, IRS states that they are crafted to trick people into revealing their personal information to the scammer who use it to commit identity theft. According to IRS, it never asks for personal information over e-mail.

Also, to avoid these phishing scams, IRS has set up an "Identity Protection Specialized Unit", an office that accepts reports of phishing scams and takes action to track down its perpetrators and bring them to justice.

Related article: Phishing With A Redirector Code

» SPAMfighter News - 2/17/2009