Gayle Alvarez of Boise knows a fraud when she sees it in her email in box.
“Pretty convincing graphics so somebody went to a lot of effort to build this,” she says.
A few months ago, scammers attempted to trick Verizon customers into opening fake bill notices, and before that AT&T, and T-Mobile.
How the scam works is all across the nation, people receive fake emails that look like real alerts from their phone providers as reminders their monthly bills are coming due.
This phishing scam is notable for its painstaking replication of Sprint emails and the large bill amounts (in this case it was over $1,000). See this sample email for a perfect example.
Alvarez took the right action: “I happen to have an account with them so I contacted Sprint directly – not via the phony link in the message – and verified that this is a hoax.”
It’s easy to spot this scam because of the large bill amounts and by hovering over the links. When you place your mouse on a link, the destination URL will appear. Check whether it leads to Sprint’s website or, in a scam email, to a third-party site.
Don’t click the link, don’t respond. If you are a customer listed in the email, contact your service provider directly or stop into a provider’s store and they can verify your account.
By responding, you’ll give away your cash, identity or infecting your computer or phone with a virus.
Robb Hicken is the media contact for the BBB serving Snake River Region. Reach him at 947-2115 or rhicken@boise.bbb.org.
