Entries tagged with “scam” from Identity Lock Box

Yahoo has filed suit against a group of phishers. Yahoo alleges that the scammers tried to trick Yahoo subscribers into thinking that they had won a prize from Yahoo in an effort to steal their passwords, credit card numbers, and other sensitive information.

According to the Associated Press, Yahoo filed the lawsuit on May 16 in U.S. District Court in New York City under federal trademark law, federal anti-spam law and other state laws. In the lawsuit the company states that the defendants pretended to be Yahoo representatives, sending out e-mails claiming recipients had won prizes ranging from a few thousand to a million dollars and instructed them to click on a link or forward personal information to a “Yahoo lottery coordinator” to get their prize.

Some recipients were instructed to contact another party to arrange for the prize payment, Yahoo said in the filing, and this other party would charge them “hundreds of dollars in various processing and mailing charges in order to complete the payment process.”

Such “phishing” scams are meant to trick consumers into sharing financial information.

A recent amendment to the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act requires each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion – to provide anyone with a free copy of their credit report, at their request, once every 12 months. Be aware that there is only one online source authorized to do so. That source is annualcreditreport.com. Beware of other sites that may look and sound similar.

Free Credit Report Offers

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) advises consumers who order their free annual credit reports online to be sure to correctly spell annualcreditreport.com, or link to it from the FTC’s website to avoid being misdirected to other websites that offer supposedly free reports, but only with the purchase of other products. While consumers may be offered additional products or services while on the authorized website, they are not required to make a purchase to receive their free annual credit reports.

The FTC Gets Tough with Free Credit Report Offers

The FTC recently settled a lawsuit against Consumerinfo.com – which did business as Experian Consumer Direct – over the “free credit report” promotion it advertised on television, radio and the Internet, including its websites freecreditreport.com and consumerinfo.com. If you ordered a free credit report from Consumerinfo between November 1, 2000 and September 15, 2003, and were enrolled in its credit monitoring program, you may be eligible for a refund under the FTC’s settlement.