E*TRADE FINANCIAL wants you to be aware of some popular hi-tech scams to help minimize your chance of becoming a victim. Two of the more common scams are phishing (fraudulent e-mails) and pharming (illegitimate imposter websites).

What are Phishing and Pharming?

Phishing (pronounced "fishing") is a type of e-mail scam designed to steal your user ID and password.

It uses a fraudulent message that appears to be from a trusted business or financial institution - often with an urgent request for you to provide sensitive personal information.

At E*TRADE FINANCIAL, we will never ask you to provide a user ID, password, account number, or Social Security number in response to an e-mail.

• Be suspicious of emails that urgently request sensitive personal information.
• Do not open attachments or click links in unfamiliar emails, as they may place programs known as "keystroke loggers" on your computer.
• Avoid filling out forms contained in an e-mail message or in pop-ups that appear over a legitimate company's Web site.

Pharming is a new, more advanced scam in which a user is re-directed to an illegitimate Web site without his or her knowledge. For example, a pharmer may take advantage of a virus on the user's computer to misdirect users to an illegitimate Web site, usually with a slightly misspelled Web site address.

This may occur even though the user entered a correctly spelled Web site address, and unsuspecting users often don't notice the difference.

• Look for digital certificates and SSL locks. Legitimate Web sites using certificate authentication are more difficult to spoof. To be certain you have accessed a trustworthy site, look for the SSL lock icon in your Internet browser window. All E*TRADE pages are SSL-enabled and include a lock icon.
• Verify the website name in the browser. To determine if the Web address in your browser is a real E*TRADE address, look for ".etrade.com" immediately before the first "/". Note: there must be a "." before etrade.com for the address to be legitimate.

If You Suspect Someone Is Targeting You

If you suspect that you have received a phishing e-mail or

• Contact the company cited in the e-mail or on the illegitimate website using a telephone number or Web site you know to be genuine.
• Report any suspicious activity to the FTC at www.ftc.gov.
• Forward the actual spam to spam@uce.gov.

If you believe you have provided sensitive personal information to a fake Web site:

• File a complaint at www.ftc.gov.
• Visit the FTC's Identity Theft Web site at www.consumer.gov/idtheft to learn how to minimize your risk of damage from identity theft.
• Contact the company whose Web site has been faked and let them know that you believe that your information has been compromised.

If you feel that your E*TRADE Securities or E*TRADE Bank accounts have been compromised, please report the problem below.

Report an Online Security Problem
If you suspect that you are the victim of identity theft or fraud, or you receive a fraudulent e-mail that looks like it is from E*TRADE FINANCIAL or one of our subsidiaries, please let our Security Team know immediately.

Ways to Notify E*TRADE FINANCIAL:

• E-mail us at onlinesecurity@etrade.com
• Call Customer Service on 0845 234 34 34/ +44 207 516 1575