>> AT&T Fraud Alerts

AT&T is always vigilant for fraudulent content or intrusions on our network, but we cannot guarantee or warrant that this will not occur.  Be on the lookout for suspicious e-mails that appear to come from AT&T that ask you to update or confirm your personal information.
Fraud on the Internet
Internet fraud is becoming more prevalent and more sophisticated. Con artists try to obtain your non-public, personal information — bank account numbers, credit card numbers, Social Security numbers — and anything else they can use to steal your money or your identity.
There are steps you can take to protect yourself, but the best protection from these threats is being aware of the common schemes, like the threat called phishing.
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What is “phishing”?
Phishing is a technique criminals use to acquire sensitive information by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business through a form of electronic communication — e-mail, instant message, or even phone contact.
A classic example of phishing involves setting up a fake Web site that looks like the site of a legitimate company. Then, the phisher sends out e-mails that claim to be from the company and request the e-mail recipients to click on a link to the fake Web site to input personal information so that the company may update their records. Once the scammer obtains the victim's personal information, he or she can access the victim's account and/or use the credit card numbers and other information.
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How to spot phishing
Phishing schemes rely on the trusting nature of honest people, so they may be hard to detect. There are warning signs that an e-mail may be fraudulent:
  1. Be suspicious if the e-mail mentions that you need to update or verify your information for company records.
  2. Pay close attention to the URL in the Address box of the browser. The URL of the fake Web site is not the same as what you normally see in the Address box of your Web browser. For example, instead of seeing http://att.com/myaccount you might see something like http://85.12.36.14/att/myaccount. Notice that the fake Web address doesn't have http://www.att.com because that address is owned by AT&T, and phishers cannot get information from the AT&T site. They are sending you to a fake site that looks like a real one.
  3. Look for poor grammar or misspelled words. Phishing schemes often start in countries where laws are not as strict as in the United States, and scammers may not be familiar with grammar or spelling conventions.
  4. Check for a lack of or incorrect use of trademarked symbols.
  5. Be wary if links in the e-mail do not lead to pages that look familiar to you. If a page looks drastically different from the last time you logged into http://www.att.com, check further.
  6. Compare the suspicious e-mail to one of the examples provided.
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