Internet Fraud Scam
The FBI's Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC) has seen a steady increase in complaints that involve some form of unsolicited email directing consumers to a phony "Customer Service" type of website. Assistant Director Monroe said that the scam is contributing to a rise in identity theft, credit card fraud, and other Internet frauds.
Spoofing & Phishing
Spoofing or phishing frauds attempt to make Internet users believe that they are receiving email from a specific, trusted source, or that they are securely connected to a trusted website when that is not the case. Spoofing is generally used as a means to convince individuals to provide personal or financial information that enables the perpetrators to commit credit card/bank fraud or other forms of identity theft.
In Email Spoofing, the header of an email appears to have originated from someone or somewhere other than the actual source. Spam distributors and criminals often use spoofing in an attempt to get recipients to open and possibly even respond to their solicitations.
Internet Provider (IP) Spoofing
IP Spoofing is a technique used to gain unauthorized access to computers, whereby the intruder sends a message to a computer with an IP address indicating that the message is coming from a trusted source.
Link Alteration involves altering the return address in a web page sent to a consumer to make it go to the hacker's site rather than the legitimate site. This is accomplished by adding the hacker's address before the actual address in any email, or page that has a request going back to the original site. If an individual unsuspectingly receives a spoofed email requesting him/her to "click here to update" their account information, and then are redirected to a site that looks exactly like their Internet Service Provider, or a commercial site like eBay or PayPal, there is an increasing chance that the individual will follow through in submitting their personal and/or credit information.