Phony e-mailers work hard for your money

Cyber criminals and phony check scammers are getting hard-earned money out of Tri-Parish residents, according to local bank officials.

Over the past several months, banks have been mailing letters to customers and posting Web site warnings about fraud circulating in the area.

“We have several thousand Internet banking customers,” said Mickey Thomas, chief financial officer of South Louisiana Bank. “We’re very pleased very few fell for it.”

This past week, South Louisiana Bank customers were the latest to be targeted online. Similar scams have been directed at other Tri-parish bank customers, including Coastal Commerce and Capitol One.

The most common Internet scheme is called “phishing.” Criminals send bank customers fraudulent e-mails, and lately text messages, claiming to need usernames, passwords and PIN numbers to upgrade Internet banking security.

With that information, the phishers can assume the victim’s identity, open new lines of credit in the victim’s name or just move money out of banking accounts.

“If you looked at the e-mail, it says it’s from us, the people you bank with,” Thomas said. “But whether it’s us or not, a bank will never call you, text message you or e-mail you and ask for information that we already have on you. That’s absolutely not going to happen.”

These “phishing” schemes originate in other states and often in foreign countries. Thomas said the phony South Louisiana Bank e-mails came from California through an Internet service provider in New Jersey.

Local residents who sell items over the Internet also need to be vigilant of fake check scams, banking officials warn.

In this scenario, criminals send a phony cashier check or money order in an amount far above the price of the item(s) and ask the merchant to return the difference in real currency.

“Our tellers are trained to detect that and inform the customer that it is indeed a fraudulent check or money order,” said Donna McKey, executive vice-president and chief administrative officer of Coastal Commerce Bank.

Although the number of victims has been relatively small, the time and energy used to counter these schemes is not.

“We have to spend a lot of time on internal training to make sure our staff is up to speed on all this,” McKey said. “The scam artists are getting smarter in trying different techniques.”

Law enforcement officers warn that the global reach of the Internet makes it almost impossible to catch those responsible.

“We trace them through the Internet to their IP (Internet Protocol) address and Internet service providers,” said Malcolm Wolfe, assistant chief of detectives in the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office.

“If it is from within the United States, we make contact with agencies in that area, and receive full cooperation as far as locating those people and continuing the investigation. If it originates outside the country, there’s not a whole lot we can do.”

The sheriff’s office has been fortunate to extradite a few out-of-state con artists for prosecution. Information on foreign suspects is turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which then determines whether or not to pursue the case.

Although South Louisiana Bank was able to shut down last week’s “phishing” site, the people behind it are still at large.

“If we were able to trace and catch somebody, they’re going to be prosecuted,” Thomas ensured.

With all the reports and warnings about identity theft and cyber-criminals, one might wonder why people still fall prey to the scams.

“I think good people fall for it because they’re busy and they’re not paying attention,” Thomas said. “Some are not sufficiently aware yet of the problem.”

Banking officials insist that consumers should not under any circumstances disclose financial information to an e-mail solicitation; even if it claims to be from your bank.

The bad guys will never stop trying to hijack financial information. It is up to customers to get smart about what should and should not be revealed, bankers warn.

“The number of attempts to get people to do things that give up their private banking information is just ceaseless,” Thomas said.