As follow up to last month's issue of TPAtlanta that focused on fraud, we want to alert our readers to some other sinister scenarios plaguing certain facets of the transaction processing industry.

Been phishing lately? Perhaps you have already heard of phishing -- hopefully, you have not been a victim! Phishing is the act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the recipient into surrendering private information that can be used for identity theft. Phishing, also referred to as brand spoofing or carding, is a variation on the word "fishing," with the idea being that bait is thrown out in the hopes that someone will be tempted into biting. Typically, an e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security and bank account numbers, which the legitimate organization already has. The Web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user's information.

For example, eBay users have received e-mails supposedly from the company claiming that the user's account was about to be suspended unless they provided updated credit card information. By simply mimicking the HTML code, it is relatively easy to make a Web site look like a legitimate organization's site.

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Calvin D. Johnson, Publisher
publisher@tpatlanta.com
Trans Atlantic Systems, Inc.