This blog is written to educate and inform you about fraud trends and actions you can take to prevent them.

03/14/2013 - Increased Activity in Investment Scams

Over the past several weeks, there has been an increase in investment related schemes. These typically involve personalized letters to potential investors asking for small deposits and promising large returns. Please be alert to these types of scams and if you receive a letter offering investment opportunities that you were not expecting be leary and consult with your finanical advisor.

01/30/2013 - E-mail Claiming to Be From the FDIC – January 30, 2013

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has received numerous reports of fraudulent e-mails that have the appearance of being sent from the FDIC. While the e-mails exhibit variations in the "From" and "Subject" lines, the messages are similar. The fraudulent e-mails are addressed to the attention of the "Accounting Department" and meant to notify recipients that that that "ACH and WIRE transactions" are being blocked until "a special security software" is installed. They then instruct recipients to go to a Web site for instructions on how to download the necessary files by clicking on a hyper-link provided (Note: the Web site addresses (URL) vary widely). This e-mail and link are fraudulent. Recipients should consider the intent of this e-mail as an attempt to collect personal or confidential information, or to load malicious software onto end users' computers. Recipients should not click on the link provided.

The FDIC does not issue unsolicited e-mails to consumers or business account holders.

9/13/2012 - FDIC sent out a notification about two fraudulent e-mails in circulation claiming to be from the FDIC. Please consider both to be fraudulent.
The first fraudulent email includes statements pertaining to the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978 and the Investor Protection Law under the Securities Act of 1933. The contact information claims to befdic.gov @  execs.com, and the area code of (646) is used is for the Washington Office. The FDIC does not have email addresses @ execs.com and (202) is the area code for the Washington Office. A form, which is attached to the cover letter, purports to be an "FDIC Claimant Verification" form. It too is fraudulent.
The second fraudulent email claims to originate at support @ fdic.gov and pertains to ACH transactions. The recipient is told that an ACH transaction has not been delivered; the recipient is requested to download the update via a link.
These e-mails are fraudulent and were not sent by the FDIC. Recipients should consider these e-mails as an attempt to steal money or obtain personal or confidential information from the recipient. Recipients should NOT, under any circumstances, send funds as requested or provide any personal financial information. Also, please do not click on the links provided in the fraudulent emails, as this may load malicious software onto end users' computers. As a reminder, the FDIC does not send unsolicited emails to consumers or business account holders.

For more information see the FDICs website.

08/20/2012 - Microsoft published Security Advisory 2743314, which provides guidance that will help protect customers from a technique that could allow a man-in-the middle attack to obtain a user's domain credentials when VPN is configured to use PPTP and MSCHAPv2. Customers concerned with this scenario are advised to review the guidance described in the advisory to help protect themselves. You can read more about this threat and how to protect yourself at Microsoft's website or through this Microsoft link http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/advisory/2743314.

06/04/2012 - The Microsoft Security Team has released an alert outlining a sophisticated attack using a genuine Microsoft SSL certificate. This attack could fool you into installing malware on your PC by making it look like it came from Microsoft. You can read more about this threat and how to protect yourself through this Microsoft link http://blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archive/2012/06/03/microsoft-certification-authority-signing-certificates-added-to-the-untrusted-certificate-store.aspx.

05/31/2012 - The US government website usa.gov details many different types of the latest consumer fraud and tips to avoid them. You can access them at their website at http://www.usa.gov/topics/consumer/scams-fraud.shtml. 

05/08/2012 - A recent example of fraud is a scam involving an e-mail that appears to come from one of your friends urgently asking you to transfer them money because they've lost their wallet or they are stuck in a foreign country. Never respond! Call your friend to verify first.

04/03/2012 - The U.S. Postal Service has issued an alert that a bogus emails have gone out to many customers regarding package delivery and online postage charges. The emails appear to come from the Postal Service and ask users to click on a link or open an attachment to check the status or invoice. The Postal Service advises customers NOT to open the link/attachment and delete the email immediately. More information can be found at the Postal Inspection Service website at https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/.