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Three new scams

Identity Safeguards © September 2006

1 - Emails Claiming to be from FDIC May be Fraudulent Attempts to Obtain Your Personal Data

E-mails to financial institution customers that fraudulently claim to be from the FDIC attempt to obtain highly sensitive personal information, including bank account information. These e-mails falsely indicate that FDIC deposit insurance is suspended until the requested customer information is provided.

FDIC Consumer Call Centers in Kansas City, Missouri, and Washington, D.C., have begun receiving a large number of complaints by consumers who received an e-mail that appears to be sent from the FDIC. The e-mail informs the recipient that Department of Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge has advised the FDIC to suspend all deposit insurance on the recipient's bank account due to suspected violations of the USA PATRIOT Act. The e-mail further indicates that deposit insurance will be suspended until personal identity, including bank account information, can be verified.

This e-mail was not sent by the FDIC and is a fraudulent attempt to obtain personal information from consumers. Financial institutions and consumers should NOT access the link provided within the body of the e-mail and should NOT under any circumstances provide any personal information through this media.

The FDIC is attempting to identify the source of the e-mails and disrupt the transmission. Until this is achieved, consumers are asked to report any similar attempts to obtain this information to the FDIC by sending information to alert@fdic.gov.

Information related to federal deposit insurance or consumer issues should be submitted to the FDIC using an online form that can be accessed at http://www2.fdic.gov/starsmail/index.asp.

For your reference, FDIC Special Alerts may be accessed from the FDIC's Web site at www.fdic.gov/news/news/SpecialAlert/2006/index.html.

2 - New Identity Theft Scam: Voice Phishing

Identity Thieves are turning to an old tool—the phone—to keep tricking Web users who have learned not to click on links in unsolicited e-mails.

Batches of e-mails recently making the rounds were crafted to appear as if they came from "PayPal," eBay's online payment service. Like traditional phony "phishing" e-mails, these said there was some problem with the recipients' accounts.

Phishing e-mails generally instruct recipients to click a link in the e-mail to confirm their personal information; the link actually connects to a bogus site where the data are stolen. But with Internet users becoming wiser about phishing, the new fake PayPal e-mail included no such link. Instead it told users to CALL a number, where an automated answering service asked for account information.

This scam has been named "Vishing" short for "voice phishing." By providing a bogus phone number, it tries to mimic the legitimate ways people interact with financial institutions.

Creative thieves are now switching their efforts to "Vishing," which uses Voice over Internet Protocol (VolP) phones instead of a misdirected Web link to steal user information. VoIP phones can recognize and store telephone keystrokes, including your account number and PIN number. "Volp" technology is new, very difficult to regulate, and enables cheap and anonymous Internet calling. A simple computer program can be used to trick your caller ID box into displaying erroneous caller information.

3 - Scammers Prey on Veterans Who Fear Identity Theft

Veterans have recently been hit by identity theft via the phone. Upon answering the call they are told told to dial a 900# which charges $9.99 a minute. This is NOT a resource to assist veterans effected by the recent information breach. Do not call the number. This is a scam!

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is warning all veterans of a telephone scam regarding the recent data loss by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Kevin Doyle, a V.A. Police Operations Team Leader, says the scam works like this: The caller talks the veterans into believing that they have a resource to assist them with the lost veteran data.

The veteran is talked into calling a 1-800 number. Once the veteran calls the 1-800 number, the veteran is directed to call a 1-900 number. That is when the vet incurs a $9.99 per-minute charge.