State warns people of Internet scams

People revealing private information in response to pop-up messages on Web sites or on e-mail may be setting themselves up to become victims of Internet fraud, according to the Tennessee Division of Consumer Affairs.
The most common Internet frauds are committed through ‘phishing’ or ‘spoofing.’ Phishing is a play on words and is basically defined as fishing for personal information. These scams often involve spoofing, which means the criminals have altered their e-mail address also to look like it originated from a different source.
Some of these e-mails or pop-ups may claim they are with your bank, mortgage company, the IRS, or someone you do business with stating that they need to verify your information. Other e-mails may advise that you have won a foreign lottery or other discounts on merchandise. Once the criminals obtain your information, they often use it to commit identity theft or run up charges on your accounts.
Tennesseans were bilked out of more than $13.7 million in 2007 as a result of frauds and this amount doesn’t include the amount of money lost due to identity theft. The top five categories of frauds reported by Tennesseans were identity theft ‘ 28 percent, shop at home ‘ 8 percent, Internet services ‘ 5 percent, prizes/sweepstakes and lotteries ‘ 4 percent, and foreign money offers ‘ 3 percent.
U.S. consumers reported fraud losses of more than $1.2 billion in 2007. About 64 percent of these consumers were initially contacted via the Internet.
Locally, authorities say one of the most common fraud crimes victimizing Warren County residents are scams where the victim is sent a check to deposit in their account and is then told to send back, whether it be to a lottery or online business, a payment for taxes or handling. What happens then is the person’s money is gone forever and the check which was deposited in their account turns out to be worthless, thereby leaving them holding the bag for any money they may have acquired by cashing the bogus check.