Bossier Parish Residents Cautioned of a Phishing Scam

According to the authorities at Bossier Parish (Louisiana, USA) residents in the locality must watch out for a phishing e-mail scam, as reported by Shreveporttimes.com on April 9, 2010.

The alert was issued when a woman in Bossier Parish got an e-mail purporting to be from Yahoo and seeking her password. She had given her password; consequently, all the people in her contact list were sent an e-mail to communicate with them.

The vicious e-mail requested the recipient to send money to the woman through Western Union in a London, England address, as when in London, thieves looted her off credit cards and money.

The e-mail actually wasn't from Yahoo. Further, she didn't even send e-mail to anybody requesting for money. Indeed there wasn't any theft of her credit cards and money in London.

Larry Deen Sheriff of Bossier Parish, commenting on the issue particularly scam, stated that everything claimed to have happened to the woman is fictitious, as per the statement published by Shreveporttimes.com on April 9, 2010.

Deen added that under no situation should anyone give away his/her identities to any person contacting him/her online.

Anyone who is e-mailed for his password must dial the helpline numbers of the Office of Bossier Parish Sheriff to report the issue.

In the meantime, a similar e-mail fraud occurred during December 2009 to Dottie Bell, member of Caddo Parish School Board (Shreveport, Louisiana).

In that scam case, fraudulent e-mails were dispatched to Bell's contacts stating that while in Africa, Bell was badly stuck. Bell informed all her friends, bank and law enforcement immediately when she discovered that it was a scam.

According to the security experts, these two similar e-mail frauds indicate the continuous surge in such scams worldwide.

In their opinion, the World Wide Web or Internet is undoubtedly an extremely significant innovation, which has made the world a global village, yet conversely, it's providing equivalent scope to cyber-criminals. As the Internet turns into a breeding ground for offensive ideas and operations, phishing e-mails like the above form an intrinsic component of these operations.

To conclude, to not fall victim, computer users are advised to deploy spam or anti-phishing filters along with firewalls so that unauthorized communications can be kept away.

Related article: Bigger Threat Posed by Banking Trojans

» SPAMfighter News - 4/22/2010