Dear UCPB clients:

Please be warned that "phishing" appears to be on the upsurge once again.

If you receive an email message purportedly coming a bank in Nigeria that a huge sum of money has been transferred to a UCPB account in your name, and that you can only access the account by paying US$300 to that Nigerian bank, delete the message immediately.

This is a "phishing" attempt. "Phishing" is an online scam in which an authentic-looking message is sent via e-mail purportedly coming from banks, credit card firms and other reputable companies.

The message entices the recipients, usually with a promise of a huge monetary reward, to log on to a bogus internet site, and once there to disclose sensitive personal data such as bank account information, credit card number, password, birth date, Social Security number and the like.

If you provide the information requested this will put you at risk of identity theft. The information may be used to defraud you.

Even just logging on to the bogus Internet site could put you at risk. The site might have codes that could capture your password and logon ID. So under no circumstance should you even go to the site.

To preclude your falling victim to these online con artists, we recommend that you observe this simple STOP, LOOK, CALL advice given by the U.S. Department of Justice, which we are again reprinting below for your benefit. >>>more