Fraud Alerts/PSAs

Email phishing scams continue to be a favorite tool of financial predators who primarily target seniors.

The crooks impersonate a legitimate company or governmental department with the goal of stealing a senior’s personal information or login credentials. They employ threatening or urgent language in an effort to guarantee a quick response from the recipient.

Phishing emails ask for passwords, user names and other personal information under the ruse of securing or confirming an account when, in reality, it has the opposite effect.

In this real-life example, an email that appeared to be from a county agency was false and contained a link which looked like a document but which likely would have compromised the recipient’s email or computer.

TIPS:

• Inspect all URLs carefully to see if they redirect to an unknown website
• Look out for generic form-letter language, typos and grammar errors throughout the email
• Without clicking on any links in an email, visit the website or call the purported sender of the email at their known web address or phone number to verify the content of the correspondence

Click here to watch Deputy District Attorney John Weller, of the Cyber Crime Division, explain how to avoid the email phishing scam.

For more information on scams that target seniors, go to the Elder Abuse/Financial Fraud pages of the District Attorney’s website (http://da.lacounty.gov/seniors/financial-fraud) or http://vimeo.com/150942366. 

Follow @LADAOffice on Twitter and Instagram for up-to-date news and use #FraudFriday.