Dear Members of US Army MARS, you will possibly receive an email
'regarding your Citibank.com Bank account. It contains links which will take
you to a site that will attempt to 'mine' your home computer for passwords
and other sensitive DATA. This could include electronic copies of the Army
MARS Netplan, Frequency Matrix, And so on, as well as email addresses and
eei report copies. This makes it important enough to warn you. Per the
Customer service rep at the Citibank.com web response center, they are
working with State Federal and International Police agencies to try and shut
down these sites (There are four of them apparently- located in separate
countries). The Customer Service person also sent this 'list' of security
hints for online users, which I think is important to repeat. Many of their
points of info apply across the board for Internet users.
73 de John Jewkes AAA0ID ID/AAA0OR OR/AAR0MI OR
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Citibank Statement on Email Scam
August 18, 2003
Citibank is working with law enforcement to aggressively investigate a
fraudulent email that has recently been sent as spam to numerous email
addresses. Although the email appears to come from Citibank regarding "Your
Checking Account at Citibank," it does not, and Citibank is in no way
involved in the distribution of this email.
The email tells recipients that their Citibank Checking Account will be
suspended unless they accept new Terms and Conditions and directs them to a
site that appears to be Citibank's. The fradulent site requests the
customers' name and the first 4 digits of their ATM card number.
Citibank urges recipients of this email to delete it immediately. Citibank
does not ask customers to provide sensitive information in this way.
Customers who receive suspicious email purporting to be from Citibank are
encouraged to report it to customer service at the number listed on their
ATM card. Citibank's systems have not been compromised in any way.
Below are some good general tips to help educate consumers about online
security.
. Leave suspicious sites. If you suspect that a website is not what it
purports to be, leave the site immediately. Do not follow any of the
instructions it presents.
. Be alert for scam e-mails. These may appear to come from a trusted
business or friend, but actually are designed to trick you into downloading
a virus or jumping to a fraudulent website and disclosing sensitive
information.
. Don't reply to any e-mail that requests your personal information. Be very
suspicious of any e-mail from a business or person that asks for your
password, social security number, or other highly sensitive information.
. Do business only with companies you know and trust.
. Be aware! Phony "look alike" websites are designed to trick consumers and
collect their personal information. Make sure that websites on which you
transact business post privacy and security statements, and review them
carefully.
. Open e-mails only when you know the sender. Be especially careful about
opening an e-mail with an attachment. Even a friend may accidentally send an
e-mail with a virus.
. Be careful before clicking on a link contained in an e-mail or other
message. The link may not be trustworthy.
. Do not send sensitive personal or financial information unless it is
encrypted on a secure website. Regular e-mails are not encrypted and are
more like sending a post card. Look for the padlock symbol on the bottom bar
of the browser to ensure that the site is running in secure mode BEFORE you
enter sensitive information.
. Use strong passwords or personal identification numbers (PINS) for your
Internet accounts. Choose passwords that are difficult for others to guess,
and use a different password for each of your accounts. Use both letters and
numbers and a combination of lower case and capital letters if the passwords
or PINS are case sensitive.
. Make sure your home computer has the most current anti-virus software.
Anti-virus software needs frequent updates to guard against new viruses.
Make sure you download the anti-virus updates as soon as you are notified
that a download is available.
. Install a personal firewall to help prevent unauthorized access to your
home computer. This is especially important if you connect to the internet
via a cable modem or a digital subscriber line (DSL) modem.
Citibank Statement on Email Scam Copyright � 2003 Citicorp