E-mails, phone text messages and so-called vishing voice-mail messages ask recipients to confirm or update Www.EPPICard.Com account data, directing them to a phony Web site. Once the scammers have gathered the account information, they can drain money from the benefits account.

“They are apparently targeting government payments” such as food stamps and child support payments, said Marc Salomon, a researcher at Cloudmark, an anti-spam company in San Francisco that noticed the attacks earlier this month. “It is the taxpayer who is footing the bill” because the compromised accounts are held by states, not financial institutions.

EPPICard is a magnetic-stripe debit card branded by MasterCard or Visa to access benefits accounts. The cards are used by Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and Virginia. Each state uses the card to deliver the types of benefits payments it chooses. When a payment has been credited to the account, the holder uses the debit card for purchases and the payment is deducted from the account. Holders also can get cash back from a purchase and withdraw cash at banks and automated teller machines.

According to the report, the e-mails apparently come from the address customeralert@eppicard.com and direct victims to a phony Web site. “They are hosted on servers around the world,” Salomon added.

EPPICard has posted a warning on its Web site of phishing and vishing attacks. “We will never request your personal information, such as a Social Security number, card number or PIN through any of these methods,” the company said.

Cloudmark has spotted about 20 of the phishing e-mails and described that number as probably just the tip of iceberg. There is no indication the e-mails are specifically targeting EPPICard users, said Adam O’Donnell, Cloudmark’s director of emerging technology. But he said this type of attack against a niche target is likely to become more common as larger targets such as banks and services such as PayPal become over-phished.

As security experts explain, an e-mail or phishing scam is an online fraud in which spam messages or Internet pop-ups are used to steal bank account details, credit card, Social Security number and other sensitive information from online users, according to the news from the Office of the Attorney General, as reported by WLOX published on June 4, 2008.

According to the news released, if any EppiCard.Com user has a card from the total of 143,000 electronic payment cards issued in the Mississippi state, he should be on guard for a pop-up or e-mail message directing the card user to confirm personal information.

The e-mail messages received appear to be sent by an official. The text of one such e-mail tells the recipient that on conducting a recent examination of his/her account, it was determined that certain additional information was required from the person to provide secure service.

The spam message asks apology for causing inconvenience but asks the recipient to update his/her EPPICard.Com account so that access to the personal account could be restored as early as possible.

Further, the message asks the user to follow a link given in the e-mail as well as furnish information by filling up a form provided on the next page of the e-mail to complete the verification process.

According to the officials, while the phishing site looks almost same as the official EPPICard.Com site, there is a prominent difference. The true EPPICard.Com site displays an alert that it never asks users for personal information through text messaging, over phone or via e-mail.

To further alert EPPICard benefactors, AG Jim Hood said that phishing e-mails typically have misspelled words. Even then, if the user feels that he has been victimized in the new phishing fraud, then he should contact the Consumer Protection Division of the Attorney General immediately.

EPPICard users have also reported receiving an email message offering payments to those who complete an online survey. At the end of the survey, users are asked for their EPPICard account information so that funds can be credited to the account. Again, the users are putting their financial information at risk when they provide the requested information.

EPPICard providers indicate they are not affiliated with survey Web sites and do not solicit personal information via e-mail and/or text messages.

Attorney General Abbott urges users of the Texas Debit Card to be vigilant and avoid this e-mail scheme. He states parents should never open unsolicited e-mails or click on web links that appear in an unsolicited e-mail. Doing so could activate hidden viruses or other malicious software or direct users to a decoy website that allows identity thieves to collect the information they need to empty the users’ bank accounts and ruin their credit.

Texas Debit Card users who have questions about their account should call the program’s toll-free hotline at 1-866-729-6159. Customer service representatives are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Parents may also call the toll-free number to check account balances and obtain transaction histories.