March 13, 2007
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NEWS: Daylight Savings = ID Theft?Creative and opportunistic as ever, identity thieves are looking towards Daylight Savings Time as their next big chance to rob you blind. While everyone is –theoretically!!- remembering to "spring ahead" one hour, crooks are looking to get a jump on your bank account and personal information.
According to some experts, scammers watch avidly for such events as Daylight Savings start and end, on the hope that it will confuse certain types of electronic equipment. While the biannual shifting of the nation's clocks is nothing on the furor that surrounded the "Y2K" virus, it does create the opportunity for computers, cell phones, and PDAs to be off in one way or another. This year, Daylight Savings happened almost a month earlier than normal. The media attention surrounding the shift is like heaven for would-be scam artists, as it assures them that lots of people will be on the lookout for anything even slightly resembling a glitch related to the issue.
Word is, scammers take this opportunity to engage in good, old-fashioned phishing in the style we have all heard of so many times. They may be sending e-mails posing as officials from the scam target's bank corporation, needing to "verify" certain information. The e-mail will look legit, as will the website the e-mail links to, which contains the information fields that you will be prompted to fill in. Scammers have gotten very good at creating professional-looking fake interfaces. As no financial institution will ever solicit you for your account and/or personal information by phone or online, however, this is fake – and in falling for the scam, you are giving the crooks all the information they need to steal your identity. Likely, by the time you realize what has happened, your credit cards could be maxed out and your bank accounts may be empty.
Hopefully, the biggest headache Daylight Savings Time will cause you is a yawn or two for missing an hour of sleep!