112th Precinct Community Council

fraudulent emails and phone calls

The Season of fraudulent emails and phone calls.

The Season of fraudulent emails and phone calls.
By Heidi Harrison Chain

Last week the precinct community council was emailed about an ebay sale that we did not make. The notification indicated that there was a problem with the buyer and that we had to click a link to give our precinct council information so that we would be protected.
The Forest Hills Civic Association received an email from paypal. The civic’s email was a payment receipt indicating that the civic confirms a payment on their paypal account to someone. The email purporting to be from paypal then indicates that : If you haven't authorized this charge ,click the link below to dispute transaction and get full refund.” The civic does not have a paypal account.
Then yesterday, I received a call allegedly from my credit card company . The card company left a message on my answering machine with a phone number to call indicating that there was a fraud on my credit card. I called the phone number and their first question to me was what is my social security number. I hung up and pulled out my statement and called the authorized number to be sure that it was not the bank who called.
When I called the bank, they told me that there are now thousands of scams and also thousands of dollars of fraudulent charges.
So be sure not to answer the emails, not to give your information on the phone unless you call a phone number that you know is correct.