Phishing Scam sabotages bank account
Photo by: Decor8
A woman from Yakima found out to her horror that criminals had found out a way into one of her bank accounts and were able to use part of her money to buy services online.
The lady fortunately was quick to notice a strange entry on her account statement. It was a debit of $19.85 to ESafe, a legitimate online company. She was sure she had never entered into such a transaction. She must have immediately notified her bank of the scam and had a freeze placed on the account as it is mentioned she was able to get her money back.
Known as ‘phishing’, the crime involves online fraudsters using bank or credit card account information stolen online to access accounts and make purchases or transfer funds from them.
The report suggests the account was compromised after fraudsters had gotten hold of merely her address. That’s improbable. Fraudsters need more confidential information like bank account or credit card account numbers, and the name, apart from the address, to make a break-in.
First time they steal from compromised accounts, fraudsters operating the scam wait and watch whether the theft was noticed. If they do not see a freeze on the account, they continue draining it.
The amounts diverted or purchases made are sometimes very small, $20 at the most. Too often such small transactions either go unnoticed or are ignored by users. It is such small lapses, however, that are worked on by criminals to meet their ends.
There are a couple of things one can do to avert falling for such scams: keeping a close watch on bank accounts and keeping a credit card exclusively for online purchases.
Source: keprtv.com
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