From my Consumer Alert on WSIL: 9-26-08
It's not at all unusual to find some spam-email in your inbox from time to time, but now more and more major companies are busy defending themselves from email scams that use the company's name. Take Fed-Ex for example... Several News 3 viewers report receiving an email that said $800,000 dollars was reserved in an account for them, and the they could have the funds shipped if they pay a $150 security fee to Fed-Ex.
Officials with the company say they do not request payment or personal information through email and the company has devoted a section of their web-site to protecting yourself against fraudulent emails. Furthermore- the company posts examples of the scam messages- which are very similar to what those in southern Illinois are reporting.
For more information: http://fedex/com/us/fraud.
For examples of email fraud: http://www.fedex.com/us/fraud/examples.html
The Coca-Cola company is taking similar measures. There are several scams circulating using the company name, saying the recipient has won some sort of sweepstakes or cash prize- but claiming the winnings means giving up your personal financial information.
Representatives with the Coca-Cola company provide some things to look out for in emails that appear to come from large corporations. Though the emails appear to be official, look closely for the following:
-spelling and grammatical errors
-improper use of trademarks
-non-corporate email accounts
-requests for personal information
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment