A sample of the electronic mails states that recipients should make their account details up-to-date within 2-hours of getting the message. Failure to do so can lead to their account's disruption, it warns. Actually, the information asked relates to users' sensitive details.

Commenting on the scam e-mail and describing the scammers' method of operation, Lee Gierczynski, Media Relations Manager at Verizon Communications Inc, stated that the perpetrators were practicing what was called 'phishing.' They weren't 'fishing' for a huge fish but 'phishing' for information, as reported by Goerie on June 22, 2010.

The manager stated that they saw a large variety of scams. The company wouldn't request for updated details of subscribers' accounts through e-mail, he added.

In the meantime, Gierczynski further stated that recognizing a scam wasn't always simple. According to him, the phishing website could be almost exactly as the original Verizon site. However, he stated that there were hints that could help in spotting this kind of scam e-mails.

Consequently, Gierczynski recommended Verizon subscribers that they should scrutinize the e-mail messages carefully and find out misspellings. Actually, such e-mails are so crafted that recipients start to panic as in the current instance. These are clear signs of a phishing message.

To remain safe from phishing attacks, it is advisable that users should keep personal information secure which comprises personal user number, account number along with all passwords and PINs. Further, users are recommended that they should regularly change their password and PIN for a website while making them complex and difficult to crack.

Whenever anyone opens an online site, he should do so by directly feeding its URL address to his browser rather than by following a link.

If anyone has already fallen victim to the scam, he should dial the hotline number of Verizon and notify of the dubious e-mail following which he should delete it instantly.