05:40 PM CDT on Friday, June 30, 2006

By OLGA CAMPOS / KVUE News

RoadRunner customers have become the target of the latest phishing scam. Bogus e-mails are being sent to Time Warner customers.

Cheryl Rae's friend received an online reminder from RoadRunner cable service. The overdue notice provided a link to this site.

"When you go to those sites and you see it, it looks just like RoadRunner, so you think, 'Oh I'm here, so I'll just pay this bill,'" Rae said.

Rae's friend provided her name, password and credit card information to a site with the RoadRunner artwork and logo. It turned out to be bogus. Similar phishing scams have hit PayPal, EBay and numerous bank customers.

"Even if it looks legitimate, be sure that they call the company that they receive the email from to make sure that it's a legitimate offer," said Erin Jones, with the Better Business Bureau.

A statement from Time Warner Cable reads:

"This email is a scam. Like all Internet service providers, Time Warner Cable will never send an email to customers asking for their password, user name or any other identifiable information. Customers should delete this e-mail and not respond in any way."

Time Warner officials say they are trying to stop the email from reaching other RoadRunner subscribers, but Rae wonders if it's too late.

"It's huge. It's nationwide. There are so many cities that have RoadRunner. Anybody with "rr. com" in their name got this email," Rae said.

Like other identity theft victims, Rae's friend has been forced to alert her bank, change numerous passwords and cancel the credit card she used to pay the bogus bill.