You go on line to order some airline tickets from a regional airline. The transaction proceeds as usual. You select the flight you want and then enter your credit card information. As usual, an electronic ticket is sent to you via e-mail. However, when you go to the airport to check in a few weeks later, the airline says they have no record of your ticket. They show you that the ticket confirmation number is not the same format as the airline used. You have been the victim of a spoofed site…and the criminals have grabbed all of your sensitive credit card information. You call your credit card company, and guess what; all sorts of unauthorized purchases have been made with your credit card.

Far fetched….not at all. Spoofing of web sites where criminals put up sites that mimic a real site in order to collect information such as credit cards numbers, is becoming more common.

In March of this year, the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles warned consumers of a site purporting to be the registry’s web site. It asked users for their credit card information and a $10.00 fee. Once this information was collected, this spoofed site directed the user back to the real Registry web site.

It makes you wonder which sites are real and which sites are out to con you out of your money. Here are a few simple tips to protect yourself:

1) If you are going to a web site you know to purchase something, type the web address yourself as opposed to clicking on an address supplied to you by a search program.

2) Take a good look at the web address of the site you are on. Sometimes spoofed sites will have a similar name to the real site but are misspelled or slightly changed.

3) Be extremely wary of any site that asks you to “update” your credit card information or other personal information. Make sure of who you are dealing with. It may make more sense to phone the customer service department to verify that the message is real.

4) Be very suspect of an e-mail message from a well known company that asks you to click on a link in order to input account information. Usually, such links will take you to a spoofed web site. All you will be doing is giving away your personal financial information to criminals.

5) There are several products that come with internet browsers that can help protect you from spoofed sites.

I want to hear about your experiences with spoofed web sites. Post your stories to my blog.

Credit Card/Debit Card Scams Fraud
Identity Theft Fraud
Phishing Fraud

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