Fraudulent Emails

[STRAT]

----The majority of you know this, but for those new to the WWW or email, this is a quick warning----

 

Recently (especially in the UK) emails have been randomly sent to people supposedly from banks, credit card companies, PayPal, Ebay etc etc, asking you to fill out a quick on-line form confirming your account and password details.

 

DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER DOING THIS. And don’t bother replying to the sender as it’ll not be delivered. (as the page is being loaded into your browser, you'll notice in the bottom left hand side of the screen the info is actually comming from an IP address and not an official address)

 

I myself have received two emails this morning, one from the The Halifax Building Society and one from Barclays Bank, both with official looking email addresses (i.e., Halifax.com) and both with official logos on them. These are complete fakes and just designed to make you hand over your personal details to a central pool controlled by hackers and fraudsters. This warning has even been on the national news recently.

 

Most of us are aware of this type of fraud these days, but even so, these emails are very authentic and real looking, and very tempting to complete. They make it sound most official and even threaten to suspend your bank account (if you have one with them) if you don’t verify your details.

 

Banks will ALWAYS write to you personally if they require this type of information. Be very aware when handing over personal details over the web, however safe you think you are, hidden “trojans” or accidentally downloaded automatic processes could quite likely be lurking in the background on your pc waiting for you to type in a password or bank account number without you even noticing anything un-toward has ever happened.

 

As i say, most peeps are on the ball these days, but even so, i just thought it worth a mention

[Tim Nelson]

Yea I got a couple emails just like that from "citibank". Looked totally legit too. But I remembered them saying that they would never ask for such information over the internet, unless it was actually on their website, so I just ignored it.

 

There's a lot of crazy crooks out there. And smart ones too!

[mbr]

Some of these are pretty slick, so don't underestimate the 'professionalism' of their presentations - these aren't scams done in an afternoon, they are well planned and well executed.

 

One other thing to not do is NEVER click on a link in one of these emails. It may look like it's brought you to Wells Fargo (bank), with the website, logos, text, etc., all identical, but it will be a fake site, used to get you to enter your information thinking you were at the real one.

If you think you may have a scam email, simply TYPE the url (address) of the site (http://www.wellsfargo.com for example). This will ensure that you arrive at the real website, then you can login and inquire about the email sent to you.

 

Personally, I ignore ALL of my emails from financial institutes, PayPal, etc., and just go to the site to read any info that I should be aware of.

 

Everyone falls for one scam or another. A good friend of mine, and IT guy no less, fell for this with a fake PayPal site, went to confirm his password, and when he entered nothing happened. That's when he knew it was a scam. They took his Yahoo ID, Ebay account, and a few other things. It took a while to get cleared up, but thankfully he didn't lose any money.

Others are not so lucky.

[IC]

I got one recently when the son of the President of some African nation asked if I would keep $17m in my account for him for a few weeks.

 

I would've got $1m if I'd done it! Kicking myself now. What if it was genuine?

 

Seriously though, I get these bank ones every day. Very annoying.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Yea I got a couple emails just like that from "citibank". Looked totally legit too. But I remembered them saying that they would never ask for such information over the internet, unless it was actually on their website, so I just ignored it.

 

There's a lot of crazy crooks out there. And smart ones too!

i received a couple of wierd citibank ones recentlt that looked legit. the ip's traced back properly and everything. i can't remember what they wanted, somthing about verifying my account info or something. i ignored them since i don't think i have a citibank account.

[mbr]

That's the Nigerian Scam that's been around for more than 20 years, in various forms, long before email. It takes tons of money each year from tons of suckers by some how asking you for money to open a transfer account, I am sure it's more sophisticated than that.

There was an article in PC Mag a whiel ago about it.

 

I used to get about 10 unique emails from them a day!

[abicalho]

I find it funny to get Citibank and other bank's e-mails when I don't even have an account there.

 

BTW, all the banks have a fraud department - check their websites. They ask you to forward those e-mails to them with the complete header (including sender's IP). It's about time they get those thieves, so please help them do it.

 

Alexander

[trhoads]

My name is George W. Bush and thank you firstly, for taking the time to read this post.

 

Like all right-thinking people, I condemn all terrorist activity in internet banking fraud. And such persons who think they can use the internet for their own financial gain do a great disservice to our country, our banking practices, and to our way of life.

 

I would also like to take this opportunity to introduce you to an African friend of mine, with a multi-million$ mining contract, who’s just a little bit down on his luck at the moment. …

 

You do that well, for being across the pond. Maybe you should try politics.

 

I too have gotten the emails from the African president, we actually asked a friend of the company who works for the FBI, why they don't track these down. Takes too much time, and they are too hard to find. The people behind that are working on reserving thier special place in hell with a vengeance.

 

I also got the "citibank" ones. I actually reported them to citibank, and they are well aware of it. they say to just ignore them.