Security Center
Tips on Preventing Identity Theft
|
 |
Probably not!
Theifs are crafty in creating websites that look authentic, but aren't. They purposely do this to trick you into basically spoon-feeding them your personal information. Many people have become susceptible to this scam, but if you realize and identify the scam early, then there is hope.
First and foremost, if you think you've just been scammed, contact your credit card company and notify them immediately of what happened and request a new account number. Once you do that, the next step is to contact the credit breaus and notify them of the incident. Once they're notified, any new inquiries, such as a new loan or new credit card account, will be flagged and denied.
Once you complete the above two major steps, the next step is to contact the scammed company and notify them of the scam. For example, if you're scammed into providing your PayPal information, write down the website URL and submit it to PayPal. They will take the necessary measures to ensure the website is removed immediately.
To help identify whether or not a website is legit, simply take a look at the URL in your address bar. If it contains "http://293.495.392.102/paypal.asp" or something remotely close to that, know that it's not a valid website.