The Office of Charge Card Management has been made aware of an email phishing scam using "Visa" and the "Verified by Visa" program.

The scam sends an email similar to the one below and attempts to capture charge card information:

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Dear Visa Card user,

In addition to our other ways of preventing, detecting, and resolving fraud, we offer Verified by Visa, a free, simple-to-use and free service that confirms your identity with an extra password when you make an online transaction.

Since January 20, 2011 we require all our customers to enroll their visa cards in the Verified by Visa program. If you do not do so you will not be able to shop online with your visa card.

This is a reminder to activate the Verified by Visa feature for your card as soon as possible. Click here to activate your account

We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand that this is a security measure intended to help protect you. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Sincerely,
Visa Inc.
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The Office of Charge Card Management contacted Visa and received the following information with regard to informing your cardholders of this scam:

This email claims to be from credit card provider, Visa, and instructs recipients to follow a link to activate "Verified by Visa" security protection on their card. However, in spite of the seemingly genuine logos and formatting in the message, it does not originate from Visa. Instead it is a phishing scam intended to steal financial information. Those who do click on the link in the message will be directed to a fake website designed to closely resemble a genuine Visa web page. The fake site will request details about the cardholder's account which can then be harvested by the scammers running the phishing operation. In this way the scammers can gain all the data they require to use the compromised card for fraudulent transactions. Phishing scam attacks that use very similar tactics have been launched a number of times over the last few years.

Ironically, "Verified by Visa" is a genuine security program designed to protect consumers from credit card fraud. Cardholders are able to activate the security program by providing a credit card number on a secure Visa web page. The scammers have capitalized on this genuine program by diverting victims to a totally bogus activation process.

Visa has published information about phishing and other scams on its website. If you receive an email that appears to be from your card issuer requesting financial information or any other personal data:

--Treat the email with suspicion.
--Do not reply to the email or respond by clicking on a link within the email message.
--Contact your card issuer as soon as possible to report the suspicious email. Use the number or Web site address on the back of your card or on your monthly statement.

In fact, you should be suspicious of any unsolicited email that asks you to click a link and provide personal or financial information. Phishing scammers continually target many financial institutions such as banks and credit card providers.