Phished--yet another warning - 04/19/10 02:54 AM
A few weeks ago, my computer began running slow--so slow that it was driving me crazy. For ex., the top and bottom bar of a new window would appear, with space in between which would take several minutes to fill in--if it ever did. So I took it to the shop, and got it back in a couple of days.
Some days after that I went on-line to pay my credit card bill, and got a screen saying they needed to re-verify my identity. I didn't think anything about it (to my horror, now): I just figured that whatever the computer guy did, it had erased my info.
I mean, this page wanted everything: my full name, Social Security number, d.o.b., mother's maiden name; the number on the credit card plus the number on the back of it, plus my PIN for it. Then I got REALLY lucky, in that these people were greedy: it wanted my checking account number and PIN for that.
Well, I don't have a checking acc't. at that bank, and this info. was required, whereupon I called Customer Service, to learn that something--a virus?--had been planted in my computer that redirected me to this phishing page. (The computer guy then tried a quick fix, even finding and deleting a rootkit, but that didn't solve my problem; thus it spent 3 days in the shop last week.)
Now, I knew that my "real" bank would not ask for that kind of information either on-line or over the phone, but I didn't generalize this to all banks. However, I think that would be a good idea.
Sorry for boring those of you who think more than I do, but maybe this will serve as a warning for some.
Some days after that I went on-line to pay my credit card bill, and got a screen saying they needed to re-verify my identity. I didn't think anything about it (to my horror, now): I just figured that whatever the computer guy did, it had erased my info.
I mean, this page wanted everything: my full name, Social Security number, d.o.b., mother's maiden name; the number on the credit card plus the number on the back of it, plus my PIN for it. Then I got REALLY lucky, in that these people were greedy: it wanted my checking account number and PIN for that.
Well, I don't have a checking acc't. at that bank, and this info. was required, whereupon I called Customer Service, to learn that something--a virus?--had been planted in my computer that redirected me to this phishing page. (The computer guy then tried a quick fix, even finding and deleting a rootkit, but that didn't solve my problem; thus it spent 3 days in the shop last week.)
Now, I knew that my "real" bank would not ask for that kind of information either on-line or over the phone, but I didn't generalize this to all banks. However, I think that would be a good idea.
Sorry for boring those of you who think more than I do, but maybe this will serve as a warning for some.