"Phishing" Scams

Date Posted: May 7, 2009

Because of the increase in the number of "phishing" scams that have been seen recently, we would like to provide you, our customers, with some information to help protect yourselves from scammers who may be trying to steal your personal information.

What is a "phishing" scam?

A "phishing" scam is an unsolicited e-mail or pop-up message requesting personal information, such as credit card numbers, bank account information, Social Security number, usernames and passwords, or other such sensitive information.

Notices from BTInet.

We would like to remind our users that all notices from BTInet do not include file attachments. BTInet will never ask you for your personal information, including your username and password or account information, through an unsolicited e-mail message. Also, please know that all notices to our subscribers are also posted on our Subscriber News site. If you ever have any doubt as to the legitimacy of an e-mail notice that appears to have come from BTInet, please check Subscriber News or Contact Us to verify it was a valid notice.

What can you do?

The following sites provide some excellent information on how to identify "phishing" scams and how to handle them.

• FTC – How Not to Get Hooked by a "Phishing" Scam.
• FTC – Fun & Informative "Phishing" E-card to send to your friends.
• BTInet – Consumer Protection: Information and Services