MOULTRIE — As if conventional scams weren’t enough, crooks have cast their lines into cyberspace and are reeling in some big ones.

The scheme is called “phishing,” and what the scammers are fishing … er, phishing … for is personal information that they can use to steal money. And a Moultrie bank warns that phishers are wetting their hooks in smaller ponds, targeting people and companies in places like Colquitt County.

“This is going to be one of the big problems of the next decade,” said DeWitt Drew, president of Southwest Georgia Bank.

Here’s how phishing works:

– Someone with a computer sends out a lot of e-mails, allegedly from a financial institution. The e-mail, which looks very official, asks the recipient to go to a Web site to confirm some personal information.

– The recipient follows the link to the Web site, which also looks very official — logos and images are easy to copy from a bank’s real Web site. The Web site has a form the recipient can fill out on-line with his name, address, Social Security number, bank account number, etc.

– If the recipient fills in the form, he has effectively handed the e-mail’s sender the keys to his financial life. With the bank account information, a criminal can transfer funds from someone’s account to his, then withdraw it, close the account and vanish. With the other information, he can use your identity to open credit card accounts or make credit purchases through stores that the victime will be responsible for paying for.

“There’s a way out of it,” Drew said, “but it’s painful.”

Phishing e-mails can come from within the United States or from outside the country, Drew said, and it’s being committed by both garden-variety criminals and terrorists looking for quick financing.

“The money, when it goes electronically, it goes quick,” Drew said.

According to a January story on washingtonpost.com — available through the American Bankers Association Web site — most phishing schemes involve a handful of global financial institutions because such banks often have large numbers of customers who use online banking services. However, the scams have begun to target smaller banks as the larger ones devote more resources to computer security.

The washingtonpost.com story cites several smaller banks that have been targets: First Federal Capital Bank, which has 90 branches in three states; TCF Bank, which covers six states; Huntington Bancshares, which covers six states; and People’s Bank, which has branches only in Connecticut.

Drew said Southwest Georgia Bank has not been targeted yet, but “it’s only a matter of time.” At this point, the bank’s main defense is educating its customers, he said.

No respectable financial institution will ask you out of the blue to validate your information, Drew said.

“Just don’t give out anything to someone you do not know (or) a contact you did not initiate,” he said.





Box 1

On the Net

American Bankers Association:

www.aba.com/About+ABA/phishing.htm

Internet Crime Complaint Center:

http://www.ifccfbi.gov/index.asp

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.:

http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/consumer/news/cnwin0304/phishing.html

Anti-Phishing Working Group:

http://www.antiphishing.org/index.html



Box 2

Consumer Tips

To avoid becoming a victim of a phishing scam, the American Bankers Association offers these tips:

– Never give out your personal financial information in response to an unsolicited phone call, fax or email, no matter how official it may seem.

– Do not respond to email that may warn of dire consequences unless you validate your information immediately. Contact the company to confirm the email’s validity using a telephone number or Web address you know to be genuine.

– Check your credit card and bank account statements regularly and look for unauthorized transactions, even small ones. Some thieves hope small transactions will go unnoticed. Report discrepancies immediately.

– When submitting financial information online, look for the padlock or key icon at the bottom of your Internet browser. Also, many secure Internet addresses, though not all, use “https” to signify that your information is secure during transmission.

– Report suspicious activity to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center.

– If you have responded to an e-mail, contact your bank immediately so they can protect your account and your identity.