Airforce targeted by phishing scam
Date: January 06, 2006Source: airforcetimes.com
Airmen are being warned to watch for a bogus e-mail message that’s designed to look like an official Air Force message, an apparent scam to steal airmen’s identity information.
Users of the Air Force Portal Web site —https://www.my.af.mil — have been warned to be wary of e-mails asking them to update their Air Force Portal account information.
A caution posted on the Web site tells airmen who believe they were taken in by the scam to reset their Air Force Portal passwords.
1st Lt. Stephen Fox, a spokesman for the Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., which oversees the Air Force Portal, said Jan. 3 that because the scam is under investigation, officials wouldn’t discuss the fraud, including how many airmen may have been victimized or whether the scam had resulted in a breach of the Web site’s security.
Similar swindles known as “phishing” e-mails have used official-looking messages from banks, Internet stores and other organizations to trick people into giving out passwords, credit card information and Social Security numbers.
In these cases, when users clicked onto what they thought were links in the e-mail to legitimate Web sites, they were actually connected to a fraudulent site that recorded the user’s personal information.
Add comment
Email to a Friend
