First came the technical problems with the switch to Frontier. Now, some Verizon customers are being targeted by identity thieves through a crime called “phishing.”
Every morning, Rita Brantley Philbrick checks her email and, on Wednesday, she spotted an official-looking email from Verizon.
That was her first red flag
“We all know Verizon is now Frontier,” she says.
The email said her information needed to be “reactivated” as part of the company’s “commitment to protect your account and reduce fraud.”
Then letter then took a threatening tone. In bold letters, the email read, “Failure to verify records will result in an account suspension.”
“It’s threatening, absolutely threatening. It could fool anybody,” she says.
The suspicious email then sent her to a link.
“That following link is the problem. Who knows where it takes you,” she says.
Philbrick got suspicious. As a Neighborhood Watch volunteer, she learned from North Port Police about phishing. She knew right away she was being baited after placing her cursor over the email links.
The email read, “jybpgd@verizononline.com.”
“There’s no verizononline.com,” she says.
As with any email, North Port Police says if it doesn’t look familiar — don’t click on it, verify first.
“Sometimes you just need to pause, let me call that official company from the website,” says Josh Taylor, PIO for North Port Police.
That’s what Philbrick did. She went to Verizon’s website and found an alert a phishing scam of Verizon customers with email examples dating back to last year.
“Within a couple of minutes, people can take information open bank accounts, close your real account and buy stuff online,” Taylor says.
“It would be easy to click on any part of this email and be taken to the cleaners,” Philbrick says.
Philbrick notified North Port Police they put out an alert on Social Media so others won’t take the bait. “There are bad guys out there. Be smart enough not to be targeted not be a victim.”
The Verizon Phishing Scam Alert tells customers to delete it immediately. The alert advises customers not to respond to the email, click on any links, open any attachment and provide any data to any websites mentioned.