Security measures into the next decade: law protects Alaskans from identity theft and fraud.

• Author: Barbour, Tracy
• Position: FINANCE

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As identity theft, phishing and other scams continue to climb, financial institutions and the government are enhancing their efforts to help consumers protect their personal and banking information. Stringent information technology security measures, coupled with old-fashioned vigilance, are important steps to safeguarding personal information and combating potential fraud, banking experts say.

PHISHING SCAMS GETTING MORE CREATIVE

With the increase in phishing and other Internet scams, criminals are devising more sophisticated and creative ways to dupe consumers out of their banking information.

One of the latest phishing frauds involved malware posing as a Firefox browser plugin. The malicious Trojan, dubbed PWS.ChromeInject, harvested banking login information every time the user entered certain sites included in the Trojan's list. The collected data was sent to a server somewhere in Russia.

Another recent scam masqueraded itself as a legitimate campaign initiated by fast-food chain McDonald's. Unsuspecting participants were offered $75 to complete a phony satisfaction survey. When they answered the survey questions, the would-be victims were asked to divulge their name, e-mail address and credit card data. Similar scares have also been done involving companies like WalMart and American Airlines.

While most consumers are leery of suspicious e-mails from banks and credit card companies, many people are still fooled by these scares. One such ploy involved an e-mail advisory sent to the credit card customers of Chase Bank. The bogus "official notification" told recipients their service(s) would be deactivated and deleted if not renewed immediately. Users gullible enough to follow the link included in the e-mail were taken to a fake Chase login page. Those who entered their login details, played right into the hands of unscrupulous phishers.

And perhaps the most brazen scam to steal individuals' banking information involved e-mails claiming to be from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC). In the e-mail, the "FDIC" said it had noticed some of the money in the recipient's bank account was believed to be stolen and that the funds, ironically, belonged to victims of identity theft scams. To avoid getting into trouble, recipients were asked to scrutinize their bank account statements--provided as an attachment in the mail--and contact their bank immediately. When recipients clicked on the attachment, they downloaded malware that transmitted their passwords or other access codes to waiting fraudsters.

Though phising attacks are on the rise, consumers have become savvier and would-be crooks are having to work harder to pull off their scares, said San Francisco-based Teddy De Rivera, head...