, This is NY Times article you might be interested in.

Scams Begin to Flourish Amid Concern Over Year 2000 Problems

By BARNABY J. FEDER

hile many consumers have worried that Year 2000 computer problems will cripple the banking system, bankers and law-enforcement officials have been warning that the bigger financial risks may come from scam artists and thieves playing on such fears.

Last week, news reports and rumors began emerging of the kind of problems the authorities had in mind. Frost National Bank in San Antonio sent a warning to other banks after it learned of an incident that sounded like the opening gambit of a fraud scheme.

A spokesman for Frost said a man had phoned the bank to report receiving a call in which he was told it would be necessary to move his money to a special "bond" account as part of the bank's work to prepare computers for the Year 2000. He was then asked for personal information, including account numbers, which he declined to give.

The Canadian Bankers Association said it had received reports of similar episodes from several provinces in the last week. And the Bank Administration Institute, a industry research group in Chicago, said that a Nebraska bank it declined to identify reported that an employee at the bank's advertising agency got a call almost identical to the one received by Frost National's customer.

Similar reports were posted on the Internet, and one such recounting was picked up and widely circulated last week in corporate and police e-mail networks. According to that Internet tale, the unidentified consumer used caller identification to trace the call to the Detroit area.

"My mother would believe this, so beware," urged Judy N. Gilleland, a Frito-Lay Year 2000 expert, in an e-mail in which she passed on the Internet posting to all of the snack food giant's information technology employees.

So far, none of the reports tell of a consumer falling for the scam. The reports say the unidentified callers have hung up when asked which bank they are calling from or for other verification of their identity. Banking officials say that the general rule -- never give out personal or account information over the phone to a stranger who calls you -- holds for Year 2000-related calls.

Other Year 2000 financial scams are also emerging. Barry Elliott, a detective in charge of the Phonebusters hot line of the Ontario Provincial Police, which monitors telemarketing scams, said the hot line had been getting reports from Canadians saying they had received suspicious calls from people identifying themselves as agents of Visa International, the credit-card group.

According to these accounts, the supposed Visa agent says that the card organization needs to confirm credit-card numbers as part of its Year 2000 work.

Elliott said that telemarketers are also apparently trying to obtain credit-card account numbers by calling with offers of insurance against false billing or loss of credit-card account information as a result of the Year 2000 transition.

Visa itself has not received reports of such attempts to gain access to credit-card numbers, according to Ryan Nicollaset, a Visa spokesman.

I know, that you know, that they are out there...Charon

-- Charon (Thatplace@downbelow.com), March 15, 1999

Answers

Double check, triple check and verify, verify, verify---------------

-- Watchful (seethesea@msn.com), March 15, 1999.

AW SHUCKS, I thought this was gonna be from the Dinochrome Brigade!!

CR

-- Chuck, a night driver (reinzoo@en.com), March 15, 1999.

Bolo - Bolo - Bolo???

APB All Points Bulletin

-- :) (apb@bolo.bolo), March 15, 1999.