ROANOKE, VA —
If you are a Verizon customer, be on the lookout for a fake bill in your email. It’s a new scam to steal your identity.
“I always get an email every month from Verizon telling me what my cell phone bill is, usually it is $162.03. It never varies” says Mickey Johnson, a Verizon customer. But he was he alarmed after some recent emails that looked like bills. “I got one that was $1,146 and I went ‘Wow, did I forget to pay a bunch of them?’”
Johnson checked with Verizon. The company says it is a phishing scam to steal your identity and Verizon is not sending the emails. The fake emails notify the customer of an unusually high balance due or thank customers for paying large bills when they haven’t purchased anything.
“A lot of consumers in this area have been affected” says Julie Wheeler, the president of the Better Business Bureau of southwest Virginia. “They are a large carrier here both on local telephone as well as cell phone so you know you have a lot of customers so you have a lot bigger concentration of people who think it could be legitimate.”
Wheeler says don’t click on any of the links or enter any personal info.
“That information, once it’s out there is going to be used to take money from you. So if you’ve clicked on that link, and provided your personal info, you need to cancel your accounts, put a fraud alert on your credit report just to protect yourself” says Wheeler.
Clicking the link can also download harmful software.
“Some of these links actually download malware to your computer that scans your computer and looks for passwords, online banking information” says Wheeler.
If you have any questions about whether your bill is real or fake, contact Verizon directly or access your Verizon account via your internet browser at the wwww.verizonwireless.com