Warning! New Twist On Phishing Scam!

 In a previous article on this site, IRS Warns Of New Credit Scam Via Phishing Email, Susanne Robicsek discusses a variation on phishing scams.

Phishing, is an attempt to illegally acquire information about you such as your bank account numbers, social security number and passwords.  The e-mail appears to be from a legitimate company such as ebay, PayPal or perhaps a major bank.

An e-mail I received today is a timely reminder that Phishing is alive and well but with yet another twist.

The e-mail I received was supposed to be from ASI Federal Credit Union (Avondale Shipyards, Inc.), a small regional credit union in the New Orleans, Louisiana area. 

 The e-mail advised me that ASI urgently needed me to update the information for my account.  The only problem:  I don’t have an ASI account, but like the name implies, phishing assumes that a certain portion of the targeted e-mail recipients will have accounts with ASI, and unwittingly respond to the e-mail.

Apparently, most people are aware of the major phishing scams which has resulted in this local variation as an attempt to separate you from your sensitive information.

Remember, no legitimate company will ask you for sensitive information by e-mail, telephone or otherwise.