Phishing, Smishing,
and Vishing – Is Your
School at Risk?
With smart phone and tablet use on the rise, so
are fraud scams!
Phishing occurs when
perpetrators try to trick
somebody into providing
personal bank or creditcard information by
sending a fraudulent
e-mail purporting to be
from a bank or Internet
provider.
The Internet Crime Complaint
Center, a partnership between
the National White Collar
Crime Center and the FBI, is a
repository used by law enforcement officials to manage fraud
complaints. An article published
on CreditCard.com in May states
that from August 2014 to April
2015, the repository received
7,891 complaints tied to phishing, smishing, or vishing scams.
Phishing occurs when perpetrators try to trick somebody into
providing personal bank or credit-card information by sending
a fraudulent e-mail purporting
to be from a bank or Internet
provider.
New variations of phishing are
Smishing and Vishing where
fraudsters send SMS text messages (smishing) and voice
messages (vishing) to consumer
mobile phones. Messages are
designed to elicit personal and financial information from victims
to gain access to their identity,
bank accounts and credit cards.
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Protect yourself and your
school community with these
tips for staying safe:
• Don’t automatically assume
that a text or voice message
is legitimate.
• Ignore text messages or automated voice messages from
people you don’t recognize.
• You may be asked to enter
a code to confirm that an
attempted charge is not
fraud, but you should never
be asked to submit or verify
personal information via text.
• Report any smishing and
vishing scams. Keep any
fraudulent messages you
receive so you can document
the case to your local police,
your financial institution, and
to the FBI.
Are You Ready?
Change is coming to the
payment card industry.
A major change occurring in the
realm of payment transactions in
the United States is the transition
from mag strip to EMV cards. Current cards have magnetic stripes
on the back of the card. The new
EMV cards are embedde