Fraud and Scam News

Photo by: EverJean

Stranger calls at home informing you that a phishing scam has pasted your confidential account information all over the net. He says he represents the “International Verification Society” or “National Verification League” and offers you with help. This is the call many residents of Midland-Odessa area are complaining to the local BBB office that they have been receiving since Wednesday morning.

In order to avail of the service the fraudster requires you to get out your check book and to shoot out your account number and whatever other secret data you are willing to gift away to him. As happens, he says this is a precautionary measure to confirm the account is really yours.

The fraudster is hoping to burgle your account after getting hold of your account access codes or using your personal details to open a fresh credit account. You either end up cleaned out of all your hard-earned money or paying up for luxuries enjoyed by the scammers online at your expense.

Authorities note this to be the most brazen attempts by phishers to get at your account information. As of now, investigations have revealed little else of the scam. Authorities warn, however, the caller is a pushy and clever customer. As a matter of fact, they suspect that the fraudster/s are tapping into ordinary phone lines and using them to make the scam calls. Because of this, investigators are having a hard time in tracing their calls.

Only one woman has reported falling for the scam as yet. Many more may have become victims without realizing it.

Source: NewsWest9.com

Photo by: Psd

A case in a District Court in New York revealed a hack perpetrated on CitiBank ATM’s installed in 7-Eleven Stores across the US. Prosecutors have opened a case against three people, Yuriy Rakushchynets, Ivan Biltse and Angelina Kitaeva for allegedly breaking into back-end processing systems of Citibank’s ATM setup and stealing approximately $2 Million dollars using stolen PIN numbers.

It is still unclear how the high security-profile system was hacked. It is believed, however, that it was achieved by targeting back-end servers controlling the bank’s 5700 ATM’s at 7-Eleven locations across US. The ATM’s were generally built around the Windows operating system and enabled facilities to test and repair the machines online. It is suspected that the PIN numbers were hijacked during transit between the servers and individual ATM machines.

Stealing of PIN numbers is a common crime usually perpetrated by installing small card skimming devices at ATM machines, petrol pumps, payment counters of chain stores, and other places that allow transactions with ATM or credit cards. Criminals use account information trapped by these devices and steal by encoding the pilfered information onto blank magnetic cards.

The numbers involved in the present case, however, should be unimaginably high. Hackers may have been able to get enough information to steal from an inordinately large number of accounts. Nobody is telling yet how many.

Source: AP

Photo by: Florian Eckerstorfer

Conway National Bank is warning its customers to beware of a phishing scam. The bank is issuing the warning after several customers complained to the bank of phone calls and emails sent to them in the bank’s name, faking a survey, and asking for confidential account related information. The phone calls were received last weekend and on this Monday.

The phone calls played a recorded message telling customers their accounts have been suspended because of the presence of suspicious activity there. It asks people to call a number to know more. Those who call are treated to yet another recorded message that asks them to confirm they are the rightful owners of the account by feeding in confidential account information.

The emails too were directed at gleaning such information from the bank’s customers. Claiming to come from the bank, they told customers they had a message from the bank. Customers were asked to click on a link to retrieve the message. The click would presumably download a malicious program that records and transmits all to-and-fro exchanges from the user’s computer to the fraudsters.

Else, the email again told customers their account has been suspended and to give away their account information at a fraudulent website after clicking on a link on the email.

The scam is aimed at using accounts of customers of the bank to pay for online purchases or for transfer of funds from them to accounts held by the fraudsters.

Source: MyrtleBeachOnline.com