A Phish Full of Dollars

"CARLISLE, Pa., Oct. 14 (UPI) --
Authorities say computer hackers drained more than $479,000 from a Pennsylvania county redevelopment agency's bank account.
Cumberland County officials told reporters Wednesday that the intruders transferred funds from the agency's account to their own accounts at 11 different financial institutions last month.
"We were all shocked when we heard this," said Cumberland County Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Chris Gulotta.
The Carlise (Penn.) Sentinel said that less than $110,000 has been recovered thus far and the county is negotiating with two other institutions.
The hackers apparently gained access to the redevelopment authority account through a virus that records keystrokes and was able to swipe a pass code. The virus was contained in a phony Web page that said the bank's real site was down for maintenance."


This is why you always know what your banking site looks like. If it says that it's down for maintenance, call your local branch to make sure that it really is! Who knows, it could save you your entire life savings. Other Tips for avoiding Phishing are:

1) Check for a lot of misspelled words. This is a common indicator that the site is a phishing site because they are usually hastily made.
2) Look at the URL (the http://...... part). If it looks different from what you usually type in, it may be a sign of a phishing attempt.
3) If you usually see the little "lock" symbol to the left of HTTP://, or your site uses HTTPS://, make sure it's there.
4) Finally, just plain avoid those sites that make you sign up to win something or receive a free gift. On the Internet, if it looks to good to be true, it usually is. In a study done, 90% of people gave up their userID or Password for a free item, usually something small like a pen or a calculator. 70% of people gave both away for a larger prize like a DVD.