Customers of three of the Internet's largest presences – retailer Best Buy and Internet service providers EarthLink and America Online – have become targets of spam from fake Websites aiming for nothing but your credit, Social Security, and other personal information, according to USA Today.
The Identity Theft Resource Center told the newspaper these complaints have hit 185 in 2003 thus far, compared to 228 for all of 2002, while the Federal Trade Commission told the paper the problem is especially acute among customers of large ISPs and banks with online accouts, though the agency isn't entirely sure how many have fallen for this kind of spam scam.
And the scam is only too easy to run and support: USA Today said such scammers can put up as little as $50 to open a Website and buy a CD-Rom containing thousands if not millions of e-mail addresses.
Best Buy customers were hit in recent months with identity thieves using "Fraud Alert" spam, made to resemble a Best Buy mailing, to siphon their credit card and Social Security numbers, a case under Federal Bureau of Investigation investigation, USA Today said. Some America Online customers were hit by popups in June warning against identity theft and resembling AOL-originated forms, so they filled the forms out, the paper continued. And EarthLink told the paper they've been getting complaints about a similar scam.
These fake Websites and their spammers are known as "phishers," and EarthLink with the FBI is trying to get them out of the water by first disabling links to suspicious sites before trying to get them shut down, USA Today said. The paper added two other phisher targets, eBay and PayPal, have begun education campaigns on online privacy.
Last week, the FTC settled with a kind-of phisher, Nelson Barrero, who ran an envelope-stuffing work-at-home Internet scam, forcing Stuffingforcash.com to pay over $200,000 redress and stopping Barrero – who faces nearly five years behind bars – from disclosing any information on his customer lists.
Their customers didn't receive any envelopes to stuff for their $40 fees, but they did get flooded with materials urging them to solicit stamped, self-addressed envelopes from third parties to send to the company, the FTC said. The site was shut down a year ago, and Barrero also pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud after a U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigation. He'll be sentenced September 5 in federal court.
