PALMDALE – The City of Palmdale’s public safety and community relations department will host a workshop entitled “Phishing and Pharming” on Tuesday, March 12 in the Palmdale City Council Chamber at 38300 Sierra Highway, Suite B beginning at 7 pm as part of National Consumer Protection Week.
“Phishing and Pharming” will discuss how crooks use computers to steal personal information and how to protect your computer.
“’Phishing’ and ‘pharming’ are two ways that criminals attempt to steal usernames, passwords and credit card details, either by pretending to be a trustworthy entity usually in an e-mail or by redirecting people to bogus Web sites,” said Palmdale’s Crime Prevention Officer Ruth Oschmann.
“Financial institutions do not typically request personal account information via e-mail or instant messaging,” Oschmann said. “Other social networking and legitimate sites have fallen victim to this fraud including PayPal, Citibank and Facebook just to name a few.”
“We encourage residents to attend this workshop and to learn how to keep their personal information safe and secure, and how to avoid scams,” added Oschmann.
For more information, call the public safety office at 661-267-5170.
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