01.12.2010

Reminder from operators and FICORA: Do not reveal your usernames by e-mail

Telecom operators' customers have recently been targets of several scam e-mail messages. The parties behind the scam attempts have used operators' names to phish usernames, passwords or other personal data. The language used in the messages has either been poor Finnish or English. Also, malware have been buried in the messages. Often, the objective of phishing is to use the information received for gaining unlawful economic benefit and for the purpose of other criminal activities.

Operators and the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority (FICORA) remind users of e-mail services that operators, banks, insurance companies, or the like, handling confidential information never ask their customers to send or update their personal data, such as e-mail usernames by e-mail.

Unexpected messages requesting personal data must not be replied to. Neither is it necessarily secure to click any links or open files attached to them.

Scam messages and other spam often cause problems. Although operators make many practical arrangements to filter scams and spam, the phenomenon cannot entirely be limited by operators' efforts only.

Further information:

Arttu Lehmuskallio
turvallisuuspäällikkö
TeliaSonera Finland Oyj
tel. +358 40 512 1123
arttu.lehmuskallio(at)teliasonera.com

Turkka Koivu
osastopäällikkö
Elisa Oyj
tel. +358 045 6700 456
turkka.koivu(at)elisa.fi

Marjut Salmela
viestintäpäällikkö
DNA Oy
tel. +358 44 313 4403
marjut.salmela(at)dna.fi

Erka Koivunen
Head of CERT-FI
Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority (FICORA)
tel. +358 50 309 8094
erka.koivunen(at)ficora.fi

Kari Wirman
varautumispäällikkö
Finnish Federation for Telecommunications and Teleinformatics, FiCom ry
tel. +358 50 500 2959
kari.wirman(at)ficom.fi