Beware of Phishing scams in your mailbox.

Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Thu, Nov 12 2009 | 1 Comment

While I’m not too sure if this was a phishing attempt or not, Chris and I got a letter in the mail a little while ago that wanted a bit of information from him; a credit card number and more contact information (how much more information could they need if they already had our address?). The reason that the company wanted the information was to give him a “claim” on a lawsuit that he never filed (or to his knowledge) was ever a part of. The whole thing seemed a bit scammy even if the letter looked like it was from a legitimate company.

So I began looking a little more into the letter and the senders. The people who sent the letter (whoever they are) are not at the address that is listed on the letter. Even the law firm that says created, filed, and tried the lawsuit was not the actual law firm that is the legitimate law firm for the suit.

So, if this is a phishing scam, do they not realize that people have Google? I mean, when my friends or I don’t know the answer to something our first response is “I’ll Google it.”

These days people are not simply going to give up their credit card information, social security numbers, bank account information, etc. to someone who just sent a letter to their house. Even if, it looks more legitimate when its sent through the USPS rather than Gmail.

I suppose the moral of the story is to always check to make sure that, before you send off your information to a company that may or may not be who they say, check! You never know whether that is an actual company or a poser.

I am really glad that I looked up that information, but I was thinking, “Who do I report this to?” Chris asked me the same question and the only thing I could think of “Well, this doesn’t have a ‘report phishing’ like email does.” So, who do you report phishing attempts through the mail to?

Related posts:
Phishing attempts; Really?
Today’s Ebook – Phishing and Pharming: Helping Consumers Avoid Internet Fraud

Tags: credit card information, legitimate company, phishing scam