Phishing – cybertalk for faking a company's Website and using e-mail purported from that company threaten its customers unless they give up certain personal information – has apparently hit Citibank, which is warning customers not to fall for such a scam threatening to close their accounts unless they give up their Social Security numbers.
Citibank told Reuters numerous customers got the e-mail, which links to a Web resembling Citibank's. They're urging their customers to delete the e-mail and call customer service representatives' numbers listed on their ATM cards.
None of the bank's automated systems have yet been compromised because of the scam, Citibank told Reuters, but the news wire said it wasn't known yet how many Citibank customers received or may have acted on the e-mail, which carried a mail.com address.
Earlier this summer, the Federal Trade Commission got a phisherman to settle in a deal that included his ban for life from sending spam and giving up whatever profit he made by his scam. This phisherman faked an Amerca Online Billing Center Web page in an identity theft scheme, and sent dozens of e-mail messages claiming billing problems with recipients' AOL account and saying they'd lose those accounts if they didn't update their billing information, the FTC had said.
“Phishing is a two time scam,” said FTC chairman Timothy J. Muris at the time of the AOL phishing scam. “Phishers first steal a company’s identity and then use it to victimize consumers by stealing their credit identities. This is the FTC’s first law enforcement action targeting phishing. It won’t be the last.”
