| Police warn public as auction websites look for a 'catch' |
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Fife Police notified today that people had to be wary of fraudsters who were cheating through common internet auction sites and trapping people into divulging their personal credit card and bank details.
Called “phishing”, this practice is aimed at deceiving people and is generally carried out randomly, looking for a ‘catch’. Fife residents admitted to have received numerous mails asking for their credit card details. What’s worse is that these mails apparently look quite genuine with renowned site names like eBay and other banking sites attached to them. However, they just seem to be authentic and really aren’t! So don’t fall prey to these pranksters, for once they obtain your card details, huge amounts will simply disappear from your accounts.
The Police warned of another kind of fraud which entailed a “second chance offer” to a bidder who had lost with eBay. The fake note asserted that the winning bidder had not paid for the item and therefore a second chance was being offered.
A Fife resident was tricked when he was trying to sell a musical instrument on a professional web site. The resident got a positive response via e-mail from a keen buyer and the deal was fixed at £325. The customer decided to send the payment by cheque and the seller agreed to post the instrument to a Nigerian address. When the cheque arrived after a few days, it was for £2500 along with a note that required the seller to return the remaining funds.
What happened next gave a real blow to the seller! On presentation of the cheque in the bank, the bank confirmed the cheque as ‘fraudulent’ and one amongst the numerous scams happening.
Following this, Fife Police Inspector, Alex Harkness warned the public to be alert and cautious of any such fake online scams. He added “This is a very worrying trend. The people who are committing these crimes are very professional. They create web sites with links that appear to be connected with the genuine sites. People are then conned into passing over credit card or bank details and money is then stolen from them.”
He, therefore, advised people to never trust any online request for any financial details since a reliable bank or institute would never request for personal details online on any site. They would instead ask the customer to register with their personal secure section of their own site through authorized passwords and the like.
Posted
on : Tue, 29 Mar 2005 00:00 GMT | Credit Cards News
By : Mark Richardson
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