Telus scam making the rounds

By MorinvilleNews.com Staff

Sturgeon County – An Internet scam is making the rounds hoping to target Telus.net users. The e-mail, sent to undisclosed recipients, asks users to help Telus update their database by replying to the e-mail with the recipient’s username and password if they are the legitimate owner of the account. The e-mail goes on to tell readers that failure to do so within the next seven days will result in the e-mail account no longer working.

Chris Gerritsen, a media relations spokesperson with Telus, said the e-mail does not originate from the communications company, but is an attempt to gain people’s personal information.

“Any contact that we have with our customers, we have directly with them,” Gerritsen said. “We know their account information. We don’t have to ask for it. So if it’s vague, it’s definitely a red flag. The best thing you can do is delete it and not forward it.”

The e-mail is typical of what are known as phishing scams, a fraudulent activity whereby the criminal attempts to gain personal identification, often credit card or banking details, by posing as someone authorized to gain such information.

“There are new scams that come out all the time or variations of old ones,” Gerritsen said. “There’s no shortage of those out there with crooks and shysters willing to separate you from your money or your identity.”

There are a number of websites that can assist the public in keeping abreast of the latest scams – www.phonebusters.com and Telus’ own site – www.telus.com/scams.

BELOW IS THE TEXT OF THE FRAUDULANT E-MAIL

—–Original Message—–
From: Telus.net [mailto:support@telus.net]
Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2010 10:17 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: NOTICE!!!

Dear Telus.net Subscriber,

We are currently carrying out continuance on our database, to complete this process you must reply to this email immediately, and enter your Username here (**********) And Password
here(**********) if you are the rightful owner of this account.

This process will help us to fight against span mails. Failure to summit your password, will render your email address in-active from our database.
NOTE: You will be send a password reset message in next seven (7) working days after undergoing this process for security reasons.

Kind regards,
Telus.net Management