{"id":11597,"date":"2012-08-09T14:28:29","date_gmt":"2012-08-09T19:28:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=11597"},"modified":"2012-08-09T14:28:29","modified_gmt":"2012-08-09T19:28:29","slug":"phishing-e-mail-smells-like-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2012\/08\/phishing-e-mail-smells-like-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Phishing&#8221; e-mail Smells Like Fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/phishing-e-mail-smells-like-fraud\/phishing_email_example\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11598\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-11598\" title=\"phishing_email_example\" src=\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/phishing_email_example-273x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"273\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/phishing_email_example-273x300.jpg 273w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/phishing_email_example.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 273px) 100vw, 273px\" \/><\/a>Scammers are at it once again, this time targeting Earthlink e-mail account holders with threats of closing their accounts if they don\u2019t respond to the request to \u201cupdate\u201d their account information. The sender, who claims to be from the \u201cEarthlink Technical Support Team\u201d, warns that if the user does not respond within seven days, he\/she will permanently lose their e-mail account. In an effort to confirm the legitimacy of the e-mail, contact was made with a representative from Earthlink\u2019s Fraud Department who confirmed the e-mail is a hoax. (See e-mail below)<\/p>\n<p>This now all-too-common scam is an attempt to gain personal and financial information by enticing the user to \u201cclick\u201d on an attached link, which sends the unsuspecting user to a third party site run by thieves and scammers. Unfortunately, users who respond to the scammers request to provide information such as their date of birth and social security number will more then likely become a victim of identity theft.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cPhishing\u201d scams like this one are made to appear as if they are from a legitimate retailer, bank, organization or government agency. The Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office encourages you to look for these signs when contemplating the possibility of a fraudulent e-mail:<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Generic greeting such as \u201cDear Customer\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Alarming or urgent statements requiring immediate action<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Unexpected e-mails with links or attachments<\/p>\n<p>If you have responded to a phishing scam like this one, take these steps to minimize damage:<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Report the incident to the three major credit reporting agencies<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Report the incident to the credit card company you gave the scammer<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Change passwords to compromised accounts<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Routinely review your bank and credit card statements<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Scan your computer to check and remove unwanted software<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Contact the Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office Fraud Line (477-1242)<\/p>\n<p>Hoax E-mail:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Dear Customer\u00a0\u00a0 This message is from EarthLink messaging center to all\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/earthlink.net\/\" target=\"_blank\">earthlink.net<\/a>email users. We are currently upgrading our data base and e-mail center. We are deleting all unused<a href=\"http:\/\/earthlink.net\/\" target=\"_blank\">earthlink.net<\/a>\u00a0emails. You are required to verify and update your email by confirming your email identity. This will prevent your email from been closed during this exercise. In order to confirm your email identity: Click here to update your account. Warning!!! Any\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/earthlink.net\/\" target=\"_blank\">earthlink.net<\/a>\u00a0email user that refuses to verify and subsequently update his or her email within seven days of receiving this warning will lose his or her email permanently. Thank you for using EarthLink ! Warning Code:VX2G99AAJ EarthLink Technical Support Team<\/p>\n<p>Submitted by LCSO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scammers are at it once again, this time targeting Earthlink e-mail account holders with threats of closing their accounts if they don\u2019t respond to the request to \u201cupdate\u201d their account&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11597"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11597\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}