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LCCC BASIC Club holds pole prayer session

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Letter to the Editor: Newspaper should air Hillary Clinton’s dirty laundry too

<p>Don&#8217;t fall for the American Express-related phishing scam.</p><p>Crooks aiming to get access to your credit card account number and other personal information had unleashed emails earlier this year purportedly from AmEx, alerting recipients of supposed &#8220;unusual activity&#8221; with their accounts. The message encouraged recipients to access their accounts by clicking on a link, which, of course, was bogus.</p><p>The link directed victims to a fake account login page and subsequent form, where unsuspecting sorts were encouraged to type in credit card details and other data coveted by identity thieves.</p><p>In recent weeks, a new wave of even more authentic-looking emails is making the rounds. &#8220;The scam &#8230; impersonates American Express so well, and with such devious messaging, that it may successfully bait many people who might normally detect and avoid other phishing attacks,&#8221; Joseph Steinberg, CEO of SecureMySocial, wrote in <a href="http://www.inc.com/joseph-steinberg/american-express-users-beware-this-scam.html" target="_blank">a column</a> last month for Inc.com.</p><p>In a bit of cruel irony, these new emails encourage recipients to guard themselves from fraud by creating an &#8220;American Express Personal Safe Key.&#8221; Again, victims are encouraged to click on a link directing them to a phony site that pries for personal financial information.</p><p>Credit companies such as AmEx are continually the targets of phishing expeditions &#8211; attempts to defraud online account holders of information by posing as a legitimate business or operation.</p><p>The website Hoax-slayer.com &#8212; which aims to debunk social media scams, discourage spam and stop Internet shysters &#8212; offers this reminder: &#8220;American Express will not send you a generic email that claims that you must deal with an account issue by clicking a link or opening an attached file.&#8221;</p><p>If you receive one of these emails, do not click a link. Do not open an attachment.</p><p>Instead, suggests information on the <em>authentic</em> American Express website, &#8220;If you think you may be a victim of fraud, contact the phone number on the back of your card.&#8221;</p><p>Also, if you receive a suspicious message, you can report it the company by email at this address: spoof@americanexpress.com.</p><p>In his recent column for Inc.com, Steinberg offered the following advice to avoid phishing scams.</p><p>&#8226; Don&#8217;t log in to a sensitive site through a roundabout means, such as clicking a link. Instead, type the link.</p><p>&#8226; If a credit card company or bank sends you an alert or a request for immediate action, call the firm using the phone number printed on the back of its credit, debit or ATM card.</p><p>&#8226; Any device on which you read email or access sensitive websites should have security software &#8220;with updates being applied regularly and automatically,&#8221; he wrote.</p><p>&#8226; &#8220;If you did click a link in a potentially dangerous email, shut the browser, disconnect your computer from the internet, and run a malware scan,&#8221; Steinberg wrote. &#8220;Ideally, keep the machine off for several days, then download updates and run it again. This approach is by no means perfect, but it might reduce damage if your system became infected by malware.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>Consumer Watchdog</p><p>Mark Jones</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Mark Jones is the Times Leader&#8217;s opinion page editor. Reach him at 570-991-6122 or mjones@www.timesleader.com.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Consumer Watchdog: American Express card holders targeted by email fraudsters