“Phishing” (also
known as carding and spoofing) is a form of social engineering,
characterized by attempts to fraudulently acquire sensitive
information, such as passwords, sensitive personally identifiable
information or credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy
person or business in an apparently official electronic communication,
such as an e-mail or an instant message. The term “phishing”
arises from the use of increasingly sophisticated lures to
“fish” out users’ financial information
and passwords. For more information about “phishing,”
visit the Anti-Phishing Work Group Web site at http://www.antiphishing.org.
ChoicePoint does not ask consumers to verify sensitive personally
identifiable information nor do we ask customers to confirm
their account information via e-mail or an instant message.
In particular, we do not send e-mail to consumers or customers
asking them to verify this information.
If you have been a victim of phishing, we recommend that
you immediately contact the Identity Theft Resource Center
(ITRC), a ChoicePoint-sponsored entity, at http://www.idtheftcenter.org/alerts.shtml.
Most scams, whether perpetrated by telephone or e-mail, ask
you to provide either credit card account information or your
Social Security number. The ITRC recommends that you never
give out this information unless you initiate the call and
you know that you are speaking to a true company representative.
If you think you have been targeted by a scam, please forward
the entire e-mail message to the ITRC at: itrc@idtheftcenter.org
and the organization will forward it to the FBI for you and
let you know if it is a confirmed scam.
To verify a suspected scam, the ITRC recommends the following
steps:
- Contact the company involved directly, using a customer
service number you find in the phone book or that you have
used in the past. Think first and act second. It is important
to verify a contact through the company before responding
to the e-mail. Do not even send a "do not contact me
again" message.
- Contact the FBI at www.ifccfbi.gov
or your local state attorney general's office.
- Contact the Federal Trade Commission at 877-FTC HELP
or via e-mail at: spam@uce.gov
- See the end of this page for a list of other sites that
report scams.
- Remember, URLs that begin "http" are not secure.
Only those that begin "https" are secure sites
to which you should send sensitive information.
- Avoid scams that appear to use telephone numbers in the
United States but are expensive out-of-country numbers.
If you're not sure where a telephone number is located,
use this free area code decoder: http://decoder.americom.com/cgi-bin/decoder.cgi
Other Sites That Have Scam Information Include:
(Note: These are all external Web sites and neither ChoicePoint
nor the ITRC endorses or sells product items. These sites
are offered as a source of information only.)
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