Phishing scam nets drivers licences

The New Zealand Transport Agency is offering to waive the fee for a replacement driver's license for victims of an online phishing scam. An extensive email, claiming to be from the New Zealand Transport Agency services team, was recently sent to customers. Recipients were asked to enter their license details on a scam account of the NZTA website.

Today people who entered their personal details on the fake website must contact it on 0800 822 422 to have their licenses cancelled, an agency reported. The agency is contributing to waive the normal fee of $38.20 for a replacement license for those who caught out.

Phishing scams try to gain personal details from recipients and may result in identity theft. NZTA spokesman Andy Knackstedt said: If you receive one of these messages you must delete it immediately. The agency urged anyone who provided their drivers license on the fake website to have them cancelled.

NZTA had exposed a newer version of the email after warnings were issued to customers about the original frauds yesterday. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs and the Department of Internal Affairs have added it to their public scam warnings.

Avoid getting hooked by a Phishing Scam

Are you receiving email with a similar message? It’s nothing but scam called phishing and it involves Internet fraudsters who send spam or pop-up messages to bait personal information like credit card numbers, bank account information, Social Security number, passwords, or other sensitive information from unwary victims.

Phishing scams target student:Scammers have been sending e-mails claiming to be official university officials in order to gain secure information from students.

FTC suggests the following tips to keep away from getting hooked by a phishing scam:

• If you get an email or pop-up message that asks for personal information, do not reply and also don’t click on the link in the message. Legal companies never ask for this information via email. If you are worried about your account, contact the organization mentioned in the email using a telephone number. Don’t cut and paste the link from the message into your browser. Phishers can make links look like they go to one place, but that in fact send you to a dissimilar site.
• Use anti-virus and anti-spyware software and update them regularly. Some scam emails contain software that can harm your computer or trail your behavior on the Internet without your knowledge.
• Look for antivirus software that recognizes present viruses and older ones that can effectively reverse the damage and that updates repeatedly. Operating systems or browsers also may offer free software patches to close holes in the system that hackers or phishers could exploit.
• Review credit card and bank account statements once you receive them to check for illegal charges.
• Don’t email personal or financial information where email is not a secure method of transmitting personal information.

If you believe you’ve been scammed, file your complaint at ftc.gov.

Phishing emails

Phishing emails are the most widespread Internet and email scam today. It is the identity and password theft based on convincing emails and web pages. These emails resemble valid credit authorities like Citibank, eBay, or PayPal. They frighten you into visiting a phony web page and make you to enter your ID and password. They will even suggest you a story of how your account has been attacked by hackers or scammers to entice you into entering your confidential information.

The email message will require you to click on a link, but instead of leading you to the real login https: site, they will to a fake website which is often very convincing looking. You then innocently enter your ID and password where your information is intercepted by the scammers, who later access your account and swindle you for several hundred dollars.

This phishing con depends on people believing the legality or their emails and web pages. Strictly the beginning of the link address should have https://, Phishing fakes or scams will just have http://, make a phone call to the financial institution to verify if the email is legit. Meanwhile, never click on the link in any doubtful email.

The following scheme may also work: You send someone money for instructions on where to go and what to download and install on your computer to turn it into a money-making machine for scammers.

You get a unique ID while signup and you have to give them your PayPal account information for the big money deposits you'll soon be receiving. The program that you are supposed to run opens multiple ad windows, repeatedly, thus generating per-click revenue for scammers.

In other state, your ID will be limited to a certain number of page clicks per day. To make any money whatsoever from this scheme, you are pretty much forced to scam the scammers by hiding your real IP address with Internet proxy services such as "find not", so that you can make more page clicks. It’s a true calamity if you get conned into this scam.

Phishing Scam

New Yorker Jessica Almonte has been receiving the same text message; many times a day for the past couple of weeks is an example of the newest consumer phishing scam.

Federal Trade Commission’s Northeast Region director Len Gordon said: Those text messages try to get your personal information, your credit card number, your bank account number, your Social Security numbers. Scammers need this information as they going to abuse it and try to steal money from you.

Not like phishing emails, if you pay per text message, every time you receive that useless text, it is on your dime. Almonte reported an individual have to take different actions to filter the spam mails.

For more information regarding smishing scams, go to ftc.gov.

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