Illinois AG warns of rip-off utilizing phony web sites to focus on banking clients

CHICAGO (CBS) — Illinois state officers on Thursday warned of a brand new rip-off concentrating on banking clients.

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul issued the warning about faux financial institution web sites that focus on shoppers’ private data.

The scammers make the web sites look actual as they trick clients to enter their data to create a checking account. IDFPR has discovered of a minimum of two such rip-off websites.

“No one is immune from online scams, so it is critical that people protect their personal and financial information from thieves,” Attorney General Raoul stated in a news launch. “Take a little extra time to confirm that you are doing business with a legitimate company, especially when you are sharing sensitive information for something like establishing a bank account.”

“No one in Illinois should think they’re utilizing a tool to help their financial standing, only to find they’ve put their personal information, and their hard-earned money, at risk,” Chasse Rehwinkel, IDFPR Director of Banking, stated within the launch. “As technology continues to evolve, so do the threats to financial well-being. We hope that consumers continue to remain diligent about such threats, and that banks assist us in helping keep them informed.”

If you’re organising a brand new checking account, it’s endorsed that you just go in particular person. If you may’t go to the financial institution, ensure you kind out the financial institution web site – don’t kind the title of the financial institution by way of a search engine.

You must also be careful for web sites with misspellings or sloppy grammar and poor design.

The Attorney General additionally advises studying opinions of unfamiliar companies to detect scams, and paying for on-line buy with a bank card – on which legal responsibility for fraudulent prices is usually restricted in a approach it might not be with present or debit playing cards. Finally, warning must be exercised when getting into private data or downloading software program.

Banks that be taught of an impostor web site are suggested to inform IDFPR’s Division of Banking by emailing [email protected] Banks are additionally requested to think about putting a discover about such scams on their official web sites.