Warning issued on fake bank Web site scam

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation issued a warning about a new scam that tries to use fake bank Web sites to target consumers’ personal information.

Scammers create the sites to make them look like a legitimate bank Web site to lure consumers into thinking they’re entering their personal information to create a bank account. The department has learned of at least two such fraudulent sites, a press release said.

“No one is immune from online scams, so it is critical that people protect their personal and financial information from thieves,” Attorney General Kwame Raoul said. “Take a little extra time to confirm that you are doing business with a legitimate company, especially when you are sharing sensitive information for some-thing like establishing a bank account.”

The department re -commends that consumers considering opening a bank ac-count contact their bank directly.

Raoul encourages residents to protect their personal information online by using trusted sites rather than going through a search engine, watch out for sites with misspellings, sloppy grammar and poor design quality which could be indicators that a site is fraudulent.

Also people should read reviews of unfamiliar businesses to find out from other users if the site could be a scam, perform an online search of a company’s name along with the words “scam” or “review” when visiting new sites and pay for online purchases with a credit card so that the transaction is protected by the Fair Credit Billing Act. Liability for fraudulent charges on credit cards is generally limited.

Paying with a debit card or gift card may not offer such safe-guards.