“Because some requests come from people who primarily speak another language, they often contain poor grammar or spelling,” said Amber Holmes, a financial crimes information specialist with the FDIC. Only open emails that look like they are from people or organizations you know, and even then, be cautious if they look questionable.įor example, scam artists may hack into someone’s email account and send out fake emails to friends and relatives, perhaps claiming that the real account owner is stranded abroad and might need your credit card information to return home.īe especially wary of emails or websites that have typos or other obvious mistakes. It doesn’t matter how legitimate the email or website may look. Here are some tips to avoid becoming a victim of a phishing or pharming scam.īe suspicious if someone contacts you unexpectedly online and asks for your personal information. If you enter personal information at the phony site, it is harvested and used to commit fraud or sold to other identity thieves. They might include a graphic copied from a bank’s website or a link that looks like it goes to a bank’s site, but actually leads to a fake site.Īlso beware of “pharming.” In this version of online identity theft, a hacker hijacks Internet traffic so when you type in the address of a legitimate website you’re taken to a fake site. Typically, the most common phishing emails pretend to be from a bank, a retail store or government agency to lure you into divulging personal financial information, and often use a variety of tricks to make the email look legitimate. Identity thieves like to go “phishing” - pronounced “fishing” - on the Internet for consumers’ personal financial information using fake emails and websites to trick people into providing Social Security numbers, bank account numbers and other valuable details. FDIC Consumer News - Winter 2016 Beware of Phishing Scams: Don’t Take the Bait

Current phishing scams 2016