Trilight Zone

[digital8]

Spammers' fake sites dupe consumers


USA Today, July 7, 2003


http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-07-06-spam_x.htm


By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY Spam is turning to scam.


As millions of consumers are bombarded with junk e-mail, more of them
are targets of identification theft.


Customers of Best Buy, EarthLink and America Online are among recent
targets of so-called phisher sites — bogus Web sites that fish for
personal data such as credit card and Social Security numbers from
unsuspecting consumers.


"This takes spam to a criminal height," says analyst Paul Ritter of the
Yankee Group research firm.


Complaints are rising — 185 so far this year vs. 228 in 2002, the
Identity Theft Resource Center says.


Eric Wenger, a Federal Trade Commission attorney, says the problem is
pronounced among customers of large Internet service providers and banks
with online accounts. It is unclear how many people have fallen for the
scam or how much they lost, he says. But reports of spam-related fraud
have picked up at:


•Best Buy. In what could be one of the biggest such cases, the No. 1
electronics chain says thieves recently used spam called "Fraud Alert"
to milk consumers of credit card and Social Security numbers.


The e-mail, which claimed to be from BestBuy.com, directed consumers to
a Web site nearly identical to the company's site. Many consumers were
suspicious and contacted Best Buy because the site asked for personal
data.


FBI Special Agent Paul McCabe says an investigation is in its early
stages. He says it is unclear how many people were stung. Best Buy says
it has received tens of thousands of calls from across the USA, Canada,
France and Australia.


•America Online. Some customers of the largest ISP say they received
pop-up ads last month warning them that personal information — such as
name, Social Security and credit card numbers — was necessary to keep
their online subscription. Because the form looked like it came from
AOL, they filled it out.


• EarthLink. The No. 3 ISP says it has received complaints about a
similar scam. "These aren't run-of-the-mill spammers. They use spam to
steal," says Les Seagraves, EarthLink's chief privacy officer.


EarthLink, working with the FBI, is disabling links to suspicious Web
sites before trying to shut them down.


Two other phisher targets, eBay and subsidiary PayPal, are starting
campaigns to educate people on protecting their privacy online.


Despite efforts to stifle phisher sites, they are likely to grow because
the scam is cheap and offers a haven. For less than $50, identity
thieves can create a fake Web site and buy a CD with millions of e-mail
addresses. "If you get just get a 0.5% return on 100,000 e-mails, that's
a major ID breach," says Linda Goldman-Foley, co-executive director of
Identity Theft Resource Center.