What are Scammers trying to Obtain?
Phishing and Smishing scammers are trying to trick you to fraudulently reveal your private information – such as Social Security number, ATM PIN, user name, password, bank account or credit card numbers via email messages and/or text messages. What you should look for These type of messages may appear to be urgent and may contain a phone number for you to call, that may connect to an automated voice response system or they may contain a website URL. To make these e-mails seem more realistic, the senders often duplicate the company logo and familiar formats or redirect to a fraudulent website. These emails are often masked under the name of a trusted source such as the FDIC, a trusted financial institution, an Internet Service Provider – or even People’s United Bank. Recent Smishing Incident Most recently, some consumers received text messages on their cellular phones that appeared to be a legitimate text message from People’s United Bank. The text message requests customers to verify a
