The FDIC on Friday issued an alert about an increasingly common e-mail scam designed to steal personal information and money from millions of unwary consumers.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), perhaps best known as an insurer of bank deposits, issued its warning about so-called "phishing" eight months after criminals began misappropriating its name and reputation to perpetrate e-mail fraud.
Phishing lures innocent people to bogus Web sites that look like those of well-known or reputable government agencies, banks, credit card companies and retailers, and deceives them into divulging personal data.
The term is derived from the act of computer thieves who "fish" for private data.
The Anti-Phishing Working Group, which monitors Internet scams, said up to 5 percent of recipients of the scam e-mails respond, often suffering identity theft or financial loss.
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