Be careful out there!!!

Do not be fooled by the latest scams. Visit the “LooksTooGoodToBeTrue” web site for tips and information.

If you become a victim of cybercrime, you should report the incident to the appropriate law enforcement authorities. Depending on the scope of the crime, the appropriate agency may be local, state, federal, or even international. The US DOJ maintains a list of federal agencies to which computer related crimes may be reported at the following address: http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/reporting.htm

In addition, you may report cybercrimes to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a partnership among the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). The IC3 provides a convenient reporting mechanism for both citizens and government agencies that alerts authorities of suspected criminal or civil violations and may be contacted via the following address: http://www.ic3.gov

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) also has a site where you can file a report about identity theft at http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft

For information and tips on safer surfing on the Internet try: www.surfthenetsafely.com

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Phishing [Pronounced as "fishing"]

Phishing is where a criminal creates a web page that looks just like where you bank on-line or favorite on-line store, or some other website that is a copy of a real website. Then they send out e-mails to millions of people that are worded in a manner designed to convince you that your bank needs you to verify your account information or some such lame story.

Sounds pretty dumb doesn't it. Who would fall for that scam!

It has been estimated that this criminal method is racking up losses of more than $2,000,000,000.00 dollars a year from millions of people. Yes, TWO BILLION DOLLARS and growing.

NEVER, NEVER, EVER respond to e-mails of this type. If your bank needs information they will notify you via the phone or U.S. Mail. And ALWAYS verify who people/companies are before you even think about giving out your personal or credit information!! Be VERY suspicious of urgent requests for personal information. Phishers use false statements to get information from you such as user names, passwords, credit card or Social Security numbers, etc. Ligitamate companies never ask for your password or credit card information in an e-mail or instant message. Don't click a link in an e-mail message to visit a Web site, instead type the site's address in to your Internet browzer. This will help prevent being misdirected to a bogus site.

Phishing e-mails can be "forwarded" to the FTC at uce@ftc.gov and to the Anti-Phishing Working Group at reportphishing@antiphishing.org

"Virus chain letters are almost always hoaxes:"

Virus chain letters are almost always hoaxes: A good rule of thumb is NEVER to forward any email just because it says "Urgent: Pass this on to everyone!" or comes from a buddy. In fact, anytime you get any email with a "pass this on to everyone!" in it, or a letter that has been forwarded dozens of times, it's almost always (99.99999% of the time) a hoax or scam designed solely to generate a chain letter--- that is, to trick the gullible into perpetrating the hoax.

Don't be taken in! It only takes *literally* a minute to find out about any email:

--supposed virus alerts (even if the email says they're "confirmed by IBM, Microsoft, AOL and Oracle" or some such)
--pending legislation, including email surcharges and taxes
--sick/dying/missing children who need email or prayers
--body part theft rings
--free vacation giveaways
--free money or products from Bill Gates (or Disney or AOL or Nokia or....) to those who forward the most emails
--foreign government workers who will pay you to let them move large sums of money through your bank account
--or any of hundreds of similar chain letters.

These are ALL almost always pure, utter hoaxes and scams. You can make yourself chain-letter-proof by taking literally about a minute to check up on any claims made in chain letters. There are any number of resources you can use, including:

ALWAYS take a few seconds to verify the truth of any chain email like this, and then tell your friends ONLY if it proves true. Otherwise, you're not doing your friends any favors, and in fact, you're just helping the hoaxers to waste people's time and bandwidth.

 

Additional resources:

How To Evaluate Internet Research Sources at http://www.virtualsalt.com/evalu8it.htm

 

The above information was reported in “The LangaList, Standard Edition, 2002-01-10.  A Free Email Newsletter from Fred Langa." www.langa.com