Friday, February 6, 2009

Beware phone text msgs!!!

Hi All,
This following story was in the news last night. This morning I received this text message:
sent by: 5000 sent at: 4:33:01 am sent on: 02/06/2009
This is the body of the text:
"Application Center/This is an automated message from Service C.U.. Your ATM card has been suspended. To reactivate call urgent at 877-330-0510"
I knew this was a cell phone phishing attempt. I went to my bank and showed my banker the text message, and she dialed the number, which is no longer in service. Hopefully the perps have been caught. I wouldn't have called it anyway, as this was probably an attempt to get personal details. I didn't trust the sender, so I decided to post it and the story on this blog.
peace,
ravnone1
p.s. the following is the news story I referred to in the beginning of this post.






04 February 2009 - 10:38

RBS WorldPay ATM heist nets $9 million in 30 minutes

RBS WorldPay, the US payments processing arm of Royal Bank of Scotland Group, allegedly lost $9 million in a 30-minute period during a global ATM heist that involved 100 cloned cards in 49 cities worldwide.

In a clever piece of news management, RBS first reported a breach of its computer systems and the fraudulent use of 100 cards in a press release that was issued during the busy pre-Christmas season on 23 December. The bank confirmed that its computer system had been improperly accessed in November by an unauthorised party and that the personal information of 1.5 million pre-paid cardholders had been compromised.

But the true extent of the fraud has been revealed in a report on New York Fox 5. Law enforcement officials from the FBI told the channel that a network of cashiers was used to withdraw money from 130 different ATM machines in 49 cities worldwide shortly after midnight on 8 November.

Although only 100 cloned cards were used, the hackers behind the swindle managed to withdraw up to $9 million by lifting the daily withdrawal limits on each card, so that they could be used over and over again.

So far, the FBI has no suspects and has made no arrests in this scam. An attorney in Atlanta has filed a class-action lawsuit against RBS WorldPay for allegedly failing to protect personal information.

FBI investigates 49 million ATM scam - myfoxny.com

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