(HOWICK, ON) – A Howick area man is out $100 after his computer was compromised. Yesterday, a 32 year old victim reported to police that he was trying to update a program on his computer. During the update process he followed the prompts and instructions that ultimately gave the scammer access to his computer. Later that day he noticed $100 missing from his bank account.
This is a phishing scam. The word phishing comes from the analogy that scammers are fishing for passwords and financial data from the sea of internet users.
Phishing, also called “brand spoofing†is the creation of email messages and web pages that are replicas of existing, legitimate sites and businesses. These web sites and emails are used to trick users into submitting personal, financial, or password data. These emails often ask for information such as credit card numbers, bank account information, social insurance numbers and passwords that will be used to commit fraud.
The goal of criminals using brand spoofing is to lead consumers to believe that a request for information is coming from a legitimate company. In reality, it is a malicious attempt to collect customer information for the purpose of committing fraud.