SMS Fraud: Do not be phished by an SMS!
Photo by: jsorbieus
Authorities from different states across the US are warning residents of the outbreak of a Text Message Scam. In the manner of other phishing scams, this new type of fraud tries to steal identities of people after contacting them on their mobile phones.
Fraudsters who run this new mobile phishing scam send out SMS to thousands of cell phone numbers. Posing to be from their banks, the messages falsely inform the recipients that their account has been deactivated. It claims this was done as a precautionary measure as the bank had noticed several signs of suspicious activity in their accounts. The SMS phishing attack then asks users to call the bank at a given number in order to reactivate their accounts.
On calling, the account holders are asked to confirm their account details like account number and debit card number over the phone. This is just an attempt at phishing and those who do give away the required information find their accounts lighter by a few thousands. The attack seems to be a concerted one as complaints have poured in from Pittsburgh, Oregon and Arizona.
The Text Message Scam especially targeted Oregon residents
A company in Oregon seems to have been especially chosen for the scam. Many customers of the Oregon Community Credit Union have contacted the company to complain. They say they had received messages last weekend.
These messages started coming early in the day. Since banks would not be open, the fraudsters figured, most recipients would take a chance and call at the number given in the SMS. And many did, and fell prey to the scam by passing on personal confidential information to the fraudsters.
The cellphone scam has the potential to affect 90,000 members of the union across the country. The fraudsters do not mind sending the message to any-and-every phone number they can get. This increases the chances of the scam finding its target: a union member.
Authorities warn, people should ignore such text messages. They would be safe as long as they do not respond. In case information has already been passed onto the fraudsters, they advise customers to lose no time in informing their banks and asking them to cancel their cards and to change their account numbers.
People should be warned when they are asked to divulge confidential information over the phone. As a matter of policy, banks and credit card companies never ask for such personal information over the phone. Their acquaintance with phishing scams has been long enough to act otherwise.
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November 16th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
I work at a bank and cannot tell you the number of customers who fall for these scams. We try everything to get the word out to people not to give out personal information about your account to anyone but it just doesn’t seem to be getting through.