News - Jan 2005

Jan 31 2005 - To make Firefox your default Web browser, select Tools -> Options, the General section. Click Firefox should check to see if it is the default browser when starting.. (That's just in case some other browser takes over as your default sometime in the future.)

To change it now, click the Check now button. If Firefox is not your default browser, it will offer change it so it is. Click Yes.

Jan 13 2005 - The tigger system will be down from 11:00PM Thursday January 13 until 3:00AM Friday morning for system software maintenance and disk drive recabling.

Jan 11 2005 -

Beware of Phishing Attacks

The text of these emails vary, but you should be aware that these emails are not legitimate and that they are attempts to persuade the unwary to click on the link in the email. Although the email appears to be genuine (and often uses graphics directly from the real Web site), the link will open a page on a rogue Web site with a form asking for information (such as SSN and passwords) that should only be given to your real bank. Some of these phishing attacks even go so far to warn you about fraudulent email in an attempt to convince you of their authenticity.

Anytime you receive an email message that appears to be from an institution asking you to supply personal information, you should immediately be suspicious. If you are unsure, it is best to contact the institution by phone to determine whether or not the email request really originated from that institution before supplying any information.

Most financial institutions will not send you email asking you to login and supply them with information they already have. Email asking you to login and confirm information at a financial institution is most likely fake.

The following are sample texts from a couple of recent phishing e-mails:

Dear Washington Mutual customer,

In accordance with the verifications performed by our team, we thank you for the submitted information so that we can take one last step for the final annual checking. Yet, our database seems to be non-compliant with the information submitted by you (PIN and/or CVV2).Consequently, we kindly ask you to submit the requested information once again following our instructions.

Explanation: With respect to the email automatically submitted to you from our online banking system in order to assure the security of our client, we have to inform you that the references received were not in compliance with our database system. Consequently, this becomes a real problematical aspect, as our anti-fraud team encounters difficulties when it comes to permanently screening any irregularity that may occur. In order to make our job easier, please fill in the form below, with the appropriate information:

https://link.disabled.wamu.com/registration/CreateLogonEntry.asp

If you believe you have provided personal or account information in response to a fraudulent e-mail or Web site, please contact Washington Mutual at 800.788.7000 and contact the other financial institutions with which you have accounts

Thank you for trusting our services.

Sincerely,

The WAMU Security Department Team. Please do not reply to this mail.Mail sent to this address cannot be answered. For assistance, log in to your WAMU account and chose the "Help" link in the header of any page.

Thank you for trusting our services.

WAMU Bank - Fraud Center

Dear Citibank valued customer, Citibank is committed to protecting the security of our clients? personal information, including when it is transmitted online. Therefore our ATM services utilize advanced security technology to protect your personal financial information.

In order to be prepared for the smart card upgrade on Visa and MasterCard debit and credit cards and to avoid problems with our ATM services, we have recently introduced additional security measures and upgraded our software.

This security upgrade will be effective immediately and requires our customers to update their ATM card information. Please update your information here

Dear CitiBank customer,

Recently ther have been a large number of identity theft attempts targeting CitiBank customers. In order to safeguard your account, we require that you confirm your banking details.

This process is mandatory, and if not completed within the nearest time your account may be subject to temporary suspension.

To securely confirm your Citibank account details please go to:

Thank you for your prompt attention tho this matter and thank you for using CitiBank!