Chicago area victim lost nearly $13k in phishing scam, police say
NEW LENOX, Ill. - A resident of suburban New Lenox lost nearly $13,000 when they clicked on an email that appeared to be from Xfinity, but turned out to be a phishing scam.
What we know:
A New Lenox police officer was sent to Elm Street for a report of fraud, according to police.
The victim said they had received a phishing email that appeared to be from the internet company. They said they had clicked on the link in the email but did not enter any of their personal information.
The victim later learned that their cellphone number was ported to a different provider and several of their financial accounts were hacked.
In total, $12,924.67 was taken from their accounts, police said.
The case is under investigation by New Lenox police.
What we don't know:
It was unclear exactly what the origin of the phishing email was.
Beware of phishing scams
What you can do:
Xfinity warns customers of phishing scams, usually in the form of an email that attempts to imitate real company emails to entice people to share their personal information.
The company gave advice on how to protect yourself from a phishing scam:
- Be suspicious of any email, chat, or phone call that asks for personal account information, such as usernames, passwords, and account numbers.
- Be aware that Comcast will never ask for password information over the phone, chat or email.
- Comcast will never ask for billing or payment information through email.
- Always make sure you use a secure server when submitting credit card information. To make sure you're using a secure server, check the beginning of the web address in your browser's address bar — it should be https:// rather than just http://.
- Comcast will never ask you to pay a large amount of money upfront over an uncommon payment method. To verify the legitimacy of any offers or promotions made by a caller, you can always call 1-800-COMCAST.
- Check Xfinity's internet security alerts site for news, updates, Comcast security alerts and top phishing scams.