Curwensville Denizen Falls Victim to Nigerian Phishing Scam

The Curwensville Borough Police Department (BPD) of Pennsylvania (US) said that a resident of Curwensville fell victim to an Internet scam that resulted in a phishing attack.

The case's details reveal that the resident got an e-mail claiming to be from Microsoft, with the message asking him to confirm the e-mail password and numbers of his account. Subsequently, the message took him to a website resembling Microsoft site, but it was not. In other words, the site was a fraudulent phishing site.

Meanwhile, once the resident's details came into the hands of the phishers, they were used to access the victim's Microsoft account, including payment card numbers. In addition, e-mails were also spammed to the contacts of the resident from his account.

A particular e-mail describing a pitiful condition of the resident stated that he was stuck in Nigeria where he lost personal identifying details. Therefore, he needed $3,150 to clear his bills and transpiration to come back to his home in the United States.

However, the victim soon realized that someone was illegally accessing his accounts when one of his friends received the special e-mail and contacted him to know about his welfare.

Curwensville Borough Police warned local residents to be watchful of such kinds of Internet scams after the department received several reports of the same. The police also cautioned everyone to ensure that they were accessing a legitimate site that could be checked from the search bar of a website.

Moreover, security researchers state that if anyone receives undesirable, unsolicited e-mails in increasing numbers from Nigerian scammers, he/she needs to change his/her existing e-mail address. If the problem continues, the user should adopt legal action. Although law enforcement authorities have varied policies, the FBI or the area police is the best place to look for help in solving an affected user's problem of unwanted e-mail, the security specialists said.

Meanwhile, as investigations into the incident are on, BPD urge that if any person has any information, he should contact at the Police's helpdesk numbers and thereby help in catching the fraudsters.

» SPAMfighter News - 3/21/2009