Phishing email Scams 419 Scam www.IDTheftSecurity.com

18 Feb 2007 · 2 min

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1:40

This content was created by Robert Siciliano. This content was uploaded by Robert Siciliano. This is a YouTube video titled "Phishing email Scams 419 Scam www.IDTheftSecurity.com" — a short news segment (7 News reporter Byron Barnett) dated February 18, 2007 about phishing email scams. The transcript uses multiple labeled speakers to relate the story of "Dave of Framingham" receiving a phishing email asking for name, address, SSN, DOB and password, explains how phishing sites harvest credentials and can lead to emptied bank accounts or fraudulent credit accounts, and reports on GeoTrust's free TrustWatch toolbar that flags sites with green/yellow/red indicators (database updated every 15 minutes) to help consumers avoid scams.

Chapters

Dave of Framingham was surprised when he got an email from his internet provider. It said they lost his account information and needed him to resend it.
They wanted my name, my address, my Social Security number, my date of birth, my password.
Suspicious, Dave called the company. Turns out the email was part of an internet scam called phishing.
It's very scary.
Internet scammers send out millions of emails that look like they're from legitimate companies. Your bank, your credit card, eBay, or PayPal.
They might say that your account has been compromised and you need to change your password.
But the information you type in goes straight to the scammers.
Your bank account can be emptied. Credit card accounts can be opened up under your name without your knowledge.
The emails link to fake websites that look identical to the real ones, so it's almost impossible to tell what's legit. They're pretty convincing.
I mean, these are very sophisticated.
But now there's help from a local Needham company called GeoTrust. They've introduced a free downloadable internet toolbar called TrustWatch. It works exactly like a traffic light. Green is good, red is bad. When a site is legitimate, TrustWatch gives you a green light so you know it's okay to type in personal information. When it's a known phishing site, the toolbar turns red. It'll give you a yellow light if you should use caution and find out more information The database is updated every 15 minutes, and GeoTrust hopes it will give consumers better peace of mind when surfing the web. Byron Barnett, 7 News.