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New Jersey Wants Banks to Help Fight Phishing Scams

Sexual predators not the only menace lurking on the Web

October 29, 2007
New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram has asked four banks to provide information on how they are protecting customers from identity theft and related loss resulting from “phishing” – an on-line fraud gambit in which authentic-looking e-mails are used to trick recipients into giving out sensitive personal information such as credit card, bank account and Social Security numbers.

In separate letters to the CEOs of Bank of America, Citibank, Washington Mutual and Sun National Bank, Milgram asked the banks to work cooperatively with her office by reporting incidents of phishing-based fraud to law enforcement, and to provide information on how the banks respond to those incidents in each case.

The attorney general also asked that each bank send e-mails to its on-line customers warning them that the bank has been a recent target for phishing scams, and offering advice to customers on how to differentiate between an authentic, bank-generated e-mail and one that is bogus.

Milgram’s letter notes that, according to the anti-phishing Web site MillerSmiles.co.uk, 38 separate phishing-related e-mail scams impersonating Bank of America took place in 2007 alone.

There were also 22 phishing-related e-mail scams impersonating Washington Mutual, 15 e-mail scams impersonating Citibank, and two e-mail scams impersonating Sun National Bank in 2007, according to the same Web site.

The Web site is a partner of the Anti-Phishing Working Group, a global association of industry and law enforcement including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team.

“Internet safety must be focused not only on sexual predators, but also on con artists and other criminals. The threat to consumers caused by phishing scams is something that deserves serious attention from both the banking industry and law enforcement,” said Milgram.

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