New email scam aimed at Telus customers touches down in region
By Nelson Daily Staff
A new mail scam designed to get at your personal information is being circulated in BC and Alberta, a Telus spokesperson said Sunday.
Shawn Hall said there has been an increase in emails from scammers purporting to be from Telus, trying to trick customers out of secure information and their Telus account login details.
The emails are typical of “phishing scams,” where criminals send emails that appear to be from a trusted source in order to trick people into releasing personal information, including online banking names and passwords.
However, the emails are fraudulent and are not from Telus. He said the company has intercepted or responded to hundreds of these email scams in the last week.
He said it appears to be the work of a sophisticated offshore operation.
Scams like this are common, Hall said, and fraudsters regularly rotate between different regions of the world, change the names of legitimate and well-known companies they claim to represent and alter details in an effort to appear legitimate.
Hall advised consumers to be cautious any time they receive a phone call or email asking for personal information.
A key indication the email or phone call is fraudulent, he said, is requests for personal information the legitimate company would already have and should not need to request, such as user name or account details.
