E-mail scam targeting Citibank customers

A credit card scam has targeted Citibank customers, including those in Cape Girardeau, asking them to e-mail their ATM/debit card numbers and personal identification numbers to a fraudulent computer link.

Mark Rodgers, a Citibank spokesman in New York, said the scam is just one of many on the Internet that has targeted banking and credit card customers worldwide.

Rodgers said people shouldn't give out credit card numbers or other sensitive personal information via e-mail.

"We are not going to ask them to reply to us via e-mail with any type of sensitive information," he said.

Consumers, he said, need to be vigilant when it comes to e-mail solicitations. Rodgers suggested people delete such e-mails and not respond to them.

Citibank keeps a list on its Web site -- www.citibank.com -- of fraudulent e-mails to alert its customers to such scams.

Cape Girardeau police chief Steve Strong said some scams take place over the telephone in which a con artist will ask an individual to disclose credit card numbers.

Strong said his department hasn't received any complaints locally about the latest credit card scam.

But he said no one should respond by telephone or e-mail to requests for credit card numbers and other personal information. Such requests, he said, are always scams.

Rodgers said Citibank suggests customers who fall for such scams change their PIN numbers or close their accounts and open new ones.