Visa USA, the Better Business Bureau, Call For Action, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Treasury Department today announced a joint education campaign to help consumers “cut the line on phishing scams.”
According to Visa, phishing is an e-mail scam in which fraudsters attempt to convince consumers to reveal personal information — such as their credit or debit account numbers, checking account information, Social Security numbers, and banking account passwords — through official-looking fake Web sites or in a reply e-mail. According to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, phishing scams grew 180% from March to April of this year.
During the campaign, the four organizations plan to educate consumers on how to identify phishing scams, avoid becoming a victim and how to report a suspicious e-mail. Further information is available through the Web sites http://www.visa.com/phishing, http://www.bbb.org/phishing, http://www.callforaction.org and http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft.
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