About the Fraud
The Police Department has received calls from residents who were a victim of an email scam called “phishing”, (pronounced: fishing). The scam works like this: The recipient receives an official looking email, usually from a financial institution. This email requests the recipient click on a specific link to update their account or it will be closed. This link will lead to another official looking web page that requests they input personal information (Social Security number, date of birth, etc). This is a fraud. If the personal information is entered, the criminal(s) on the other end of the website now have a person's private information and are able to open credit accounts in that individual’s name. Some of the business names used by criminals in this fraud have been Citibank, Bank of America and eBay.
Prevention
The best prevention measure is not
to respond to an unsolicited email. Financial institutions report they will not send out emails to account holders to update their information.
