E-mail scams greet the season

ORLANDO, Fla. — Just in time for Cyber Monday and the online holiday shopping rush, high-tech Grinches are cranking up their fraud attacks with a new round of bogus e-mail, identity-theft experts say.

Have you won $2 million in a Christmas sweepstakes held by Coca-Cola in the United Kingdom? Can you make big bucks just by cashing checks for an Irish researcher, Chinese exporter or rich oil consultant in Dubai?

Is there a problem with your account at Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, eBay or PayPal?

No. But you might think so if you fall for some of the recent e-mail scams infesting the Internet.

And they always peak this time of year, as millions of shoppers spend more time on the Web.

"We do see e-mail and phone scams picking up during the holiday season," said Linda Foley, executive director of the Identity Theft Resource Center, a watchdog group based in San Diego.

"Much of it is because we are simply so distracted," Foley said. "Our inbox gets full; we go through it so quickly, we don't pay as much attention as we should. Scam artists try to exploit that."

From fake e-greeting cards and charity pleas to foreign lottery scams, the pace of illicit "phishing" e-mail spikes by more than 33 percent during the holiday season, according to Symantec, maker of the popular Norton computer-security software.

Unsolicited and unwanted, the often authentic-looking missives have one purpose: to trick you into giving account numbers or other information that can be used to steal your money.

They may lure you to click on fraudulent Web sites that use malicious software to capture data from your computer.

Either way, they fish for personal data, hence the term "phishing" e-mail.

"I get them all the time and I work in a police station," said Sandie Jernigan, who conducts crime-awareness programs in Seminole County, Fla., for the Seniors v. Crime group.

"We have an e-mail filter, but it doesn't block these things," Jernigan said. "I got one last month claiming to be from Washington Mutual, telling me there was a problem and if I didn't call this specific number to verify my information, they would put a block on my account."

Banks and e-commerce companies guarantee they will never use unsolicited e-mail to ask customers for personal information or to notify them about an account problem.

About 124 million people received phishing e-mail this year, up 118 percent since 2004, according to a survey by Avivah Litan, a Gartner analyst. Of that number, 3.6 million, or 3 percent, lost money as a result of the scam, nearly the same percentage as in past surveys, she said.

"It appears that we're seeing more attacks and more people being victimized, although the percentage is staying about the same," she said. "Overall, people's awareness of phishing attacks is relatively low, compared to viruses and spyware."

Online shoppers should be especially careful about the sites they visit and their transactions during the holidays, Litan said. Some advice:

• Use only familiar, secure retail sites. Always immediately delete any unsolicited e-mail asking for personal information or instructing you to go to a particular site to verify your information.

• Don't click on any e-greeting cards, attached files or links from unfamiliar sources.

• Never use your debit card to buy online. Use a credit card, PayPal account or "bill me later" option.

• Make sure your computer is updated with the latest in anti-virus and other security software. Stay away from gambling and pornography sites, which often have malicious software embedded in the images.