CBC News reports that online criminals are taking advantage of the popularity of the Oprah Winfrey Show to rip off the identities of consumers. Phishers are emailing “invitations” to fans, purporting to be representatives of the show and offering “VIP Guest Seat” tickets to the show for $550 to $950. Recipients are asked to send their name, address, age and profession, and told to wire money to an unidentified third party.

“With the large number of Oprah’s fans worldwide, we are concerned that their excitement at the opportunity to attend a taping of her TV show may result in fans responding to this unauthorized offer,” says Illinois’s Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

The Oprah Winfrey Show does not sell tickets. It takes reservations to attend tapings for free.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 27th, 2006 at 3:23 pm and is filed under Credit Card Fraud, ID Theft Prevention, Internet Security, Phishing, Scams, spear phishing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.