...and other information to keep staff in the Technology Loop

Friday, November 18, 2005

PSA: Online Banking Alert

(phishing scam)

Phishing schemes have been abundant for a few years now, but until recently they haven't been quite as sophisticated. Take this email notice for example (an actual email received by one of our staff members just today) ...


(Click for larger image)



The notice looks official and even contains references to the BofA website and a URL that looks like it should be legit. However, the URL is actually a redirect from the BofA site to a scammers site. How can this happen? Well according to several phishing alert and fraud organizations, the scammers are using a weakness of the Bankofamerica.com site. To view the explanation, click here.

The Bottom Line: No matter have legitimate an email notice may look, be sure to contact the company or organization personally first to confirms its not a scam --and don't use the contact info from the email -- get the information from a primary source (i.e. telephone book or company website).

Victims of phishing scams, which are designed to capture obtain your personal information (name, SS#, online passwords, accounts, etc) soon become victims ofidentity theft! So be on the lookout and if it looks fishy phishy ( or even not) always do your homework and contact the organization yourself. A mere 5 minutes of detective work could save you 5 years of identity theft headaches.

PS: These type emails are so common, that even the BofA site has its own section for fraud