Phishing gets direr

Sep 25, 2007 12:17 GMT  ·  By

Cyber-crooks use all sorts of methods to steal one person's data or identity. They will go as far as pretending to be high-profile companies, in order to trick users. Now they pretend to be representatives of Visa and say that you have been enrolled in a program, then ask you for some data? of course, it's phishing!

Consumer Affairs explains how the message looks like - the crooks will "inform" you that your Bank of America card has been enrolled in the Verified by Visa program. Then comes the outrageous part - they even start yapping about how important security is and they say that it is important for you to secure your card online with a password. This is not the first time (and I doubt it will be the last) when these guys are using security topics to trick people. They will insert a link in the message they send you that will take you to a clone site of the original Visa page.

Then, the scammer will ask the user that was gullible enough to follow the instructions to give some more personal details. That would never happen with the real company! Also, another way to tell this is a hoax is the fact that the scammer will state in the message that the failure of update is going to cause a temporary unavailability of your card. Now, you have to be pretty na?ve to fall for this - why would Visa want to lose customers just like that? Then, think about the fact that such important announcements will first appear in the media, and you'll probably get a letter as well, in your REAL mailbox. This has "sham" written all over it - do not let yourselves tricked! Should they get their hands on your personal details who knows what they might do next?