	UD Home IT Help Center

Phishing Alert

The FDIC has issued Consumer Alerts concerning recent exponential growth in a scam known as "phishing".
This "fishing for confidential information" is a scam that attempts to fraudulently use your personal or financial information obtained through e-mail or pop-up messages claiming to have been sent from:
- Your bank,
- Your credit card company,
- A Government Agency (like the FDIC),
- Microsoft,
- Verizon,
- E-bay,
- PayPal,
- Other institutions that already have your personal data.
A bogus e-mail or pop-up asks you to click a link to "verify" or "re-submit" personal information at the institution's web site, when, in fact, the link directs you to the scammer's look-alike copy of the web site.
Entering information at the fraudulent web site can result in theft from your account(s) and/or theft of your identity, e.g. criminals pretending to be you to obtain credit cards in your name.
Scammers have posted "phishing kits" on the Internet to spread the use of this fraudulent technique.

NEVER click a link in an e-mail message asking for personal information, even if you are warned that you will be charged if you don't respond.
NEVER open any attachments in suspicious e-mail messages.
Just delete them immediately.
Contact the institution by telephone to verify the legitimacy of a suspicious e-mail request for information. Reputable companies and institutions NEVER ask you to verify confidential information via e-mail.
Disable Windows XP Messenger service, used by spammers to send unsolicited pop-up messages.
Test your knowledge! Take the short Phishing Basics Online Quiz from Microsoft.
For additional tips, see OnGuardOnline's How Not to Get Hooked by a ‘Phishing’ Scam.
If you have given out confidential information in a phishing scam, review the State of Delaware Attorney General's Office ID Theft Kit for steps to follow and forms to prepare written proof needed to report identity theft.
Additional Identity Theft Links