ES: Possible Identity Theft Warning!!

[ES]

I just received the following email, purporting to be from AOL:

Dear AOL Member
It has come to our attention that your AOL Billing Information records are out of date. That requires you to update the Billing Information. Failure to update your records will result in account termination. Please update your records within 24 hours. Once you have updated your account records, your AOL session will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. Failure to update will result in cancellation of service, Terms of Service (TOS) violations or future billing problems. You must click the link below and enter your login information on the following page to confirm your Billing Information records..

The link asked for my drivers licence number, mother's maiden name, etc. I called AOL. They told me my account does not need to be updated and that this email is spam. I would replace the p with a c. I suppose that the sender has identity theft on his agenda.

[Parker]

This is known as a Phishing scam. In addition to AOL, it may purport to be from Paypal, Ebay, or a financial institution.

Some may contain spelling errors or other obvious giveaways, others are quite sophisticated. All will have the same message: If you do not immediately click on the link and provide information, something bad will happen.

Another giveaway is that they will not address you by your name or account number, just the e-mail address (or nothing at all).

If you're not sure, simply forward the e-mail to spoof@*institution.com* (for example [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], etc.) and you will likely receive a quick reply telling you that the message is a scam.

Alternatively, just go to the institution's website using your usual bookmark (do NOT click on the link provided), log in to your account, and check for any messages.