Anyone who thinks phising is a leisurely pastime, which hurts no one, isn’t up on their Internet jargon.

Phishing is the act of misusing an email address in order to pull off a scam or other cybercrime. A phishing expedition may use an e-mail message which appears to be generated from a reputable source to try and convince recipients to go to a spoofed website and disclose credit card numbers and confidential information so that, among other things, identities can be stolen.

Thanks to the global properties of the Internet, nobody is safe. One such phishing episode is now attacking customers of local banks. The email, which comes under different subject lines like: Urgent Notification From BiIIing Department, Attention to all Fifth Third Bank clients Wed, 09 Aug 2006 09:18:09 +0100 or Fifth Third Bank - Urgent Security Notification are not real warnings from the bank. They are, attacks on your personal and important banking information.

Natalie Guzman, public relations director for Fifth Third Bank of Central Indiana, made this clear.

“We never ask for your used ID, password, Social Security Number, card number or account number in an email,” she said. “Why would we ask for it? We’re your bank. Wouldn’t we already have it?”

Guzman’s advice is good but these scam artists can be very convincing. They not only decorate their emails with official logos but create those mimicked or spoofed sites to make victims believe they are really visiting the bank’s Website.

“The scammers are coming fast and furious,” Guzman said. “They are highly-sophisticated hackers. They know citizens are very leery of having their identities stolen and when they see an email with a security risk they want to be helpful. They want to make sure it didn’t affect them. The problem is, when they share information through these emails they are at great risk.”

Guzman said 5/3 Bank has sent out warning letters to all its customers and has resources for anyone taken in by the scam. Customers who think their account information has been compromised should contact the bank immediately by calling a helpline dedicated to this problem at 1-800-676-5869. There is also a tutorial on how to detect a scam at their official Website www.53.com.

“These phishing scammers are attacking all banks. They start with the national banks and work their way to the super-regionals like ours,” Guzman said. “We and all banks have very good security teams who can usually shut down a problem like this within minutes once we’re notified.”

Anyone who’s received a suspicious email from what appears to be 5/3 Bank is encouraged to forward it to 53investigation@security.53.com.