Clark wants to warn you again about the “phishing” scams going on out there. These technically-adept crooks solicit you, pretending to be from a bank or government source. They say they need to update your records and they send you links to Web sites that look just like the real thing. AOL and other providers have put several warnings about these scams, but they are not working. The FBI says people are responding to these in huge numbers and they’re freely giving out their phone numbers, social security numbers and other financial information. These crimes account for half of all complaints coming into the FBI’s Internet Crime Center. About 12 million of these e-mails are going out every month, in fact. A miniscule number of people are responding to regular spam, yet one in 20 people are responding to phishing scams. It’s scary. Do not ever respond to any e-mail you receive from businesses claiming they need to update records or any of that business. They are cheating you.
In other Internet news, Rutgers University has done a study about what people do to make them more susceptible to identity theft. The school has put together a quiz that tells you if you are at risk. You should take if you are concerned about ID theft – and even if you’re not.
Link to the survey here.
