New Hope Borough Target of Financial Scam

New Hope Borough targeted by scam: Although New Hope Borough was the target of a "financial irregularities" scam last week, the good news is that no money was lost.

New Hope Borough and county officials didn't release any facts in the case, except to confirm that there was an attempt to target money and financial information online.

"Borough council has already taken steps to ensure that it will continue to be protected in the future," the statement said.

In addition, the borough has both an internal investigation as well as a criminal investigation to determine whether borough employees were involved, and to determine whether a crime was committed.

This is just the latest reminder that both individuals and groups of all kinds need to be vigilant with personal information in the digital age. Just this week we also saw a phishing scam involving Google Docs which collected personal information and passwords from thousands of Google users.

There was also reportedly a spike in phishing scams this past tax season. Several tax blogs reported warnings about fake emails from TurboTax that collected passwords and social security numbers from unsuspecting customers in order to steal their tax refunds.

"Really you shouldn't even trust an email from your grandmother that asks for personal information," said Melissa Woodruff of online security site 0spam.com.

"You should also be aware of everything your employees are doing online, and closely monitor who has access to your company's sensitive information."

The prevalent use of smartphones makes us even more susceptible to phishing scams, as we're often caught off guard when we mindlessly click through emails and online links.

The attempted financial scam against New Hope is just the latest example of how we all need to keep our guard up at all times online, and even when answering phone calls from unknown numbers.