Arvest Quashes Internet Scam

Bentonville-based Arvest Bank discovered early on May 2, that some of its customers had received an e-mail asking them to enter personal financial information on a fake Web site designed to look like an Arvest site.

Jason Kincy, advertising manager for Arvest Bank Group Inc., said the scam, which is identity theft commonly referred to as “phishing,” was shut down within three hours of the bank’s notification.

Kincy said that unless customers had received the e-mail and actually entered information on the fraudulent site, there was no need for concern, but that anyone who did enter information on the site should contact Arvest immediately.

He could not say how long the site was actually up on the Internet, but that the Anti-Phishing Working Group, an online watchdog organization, reports the average time for a like site is 5.8 days. He believes the fake Arvest site was down much quicker than that.

The APWG reported 2,870 phishing sites during the month of March alone, and the monthly growth rate of sites has climbed to 28 percent since July 2004.