URGENT MESSAGE! DO NOT RESPOND TO THAT EMAIL!

[erpowers]

Recently, I recieved two emails from two different banks. First, I recieved one from South Trust Bank and then today I recieved one from Charter one bank. The frist was telling me something about some new system or something like that. The other was telling what the bank was doing for it customers to stop identity theft. Each of these emails identified me as a customer of the banks. Since I was not a customer of either bank I became scared that someone may have opened bank accounts in my name, so I called the banks and found out that these were fraudelent emails.

People are sending out random emails to other people in the hopes of actually emailing a real customer of a bank. Their purpose is to make the bank customer think that their bank is asking them for their account number in order to run a check, update the system, or prevent identity theft. In actuality, the emailer is stealing the bank customer's information. So whether or not you are a customer of any bank that emails you, but especially if you are a customer do not respond to the email. If you do recieve an email just call your bank and let them know. They may be able to give you an email address to which you can forward the email. The email address for South Trust Bank is [e-mail]. The email for Charter One Bank is [e-mail]. From what I have heard it is not just these two banks. emails are coming BankOne and other banks. Please inform you friends about this.

[Cleita]

1. Thanks for the heads up. You can never be too careful these days.

eom

[Quakerfriend]

2. Thx for the tip!

[oscar111]

4. 20% of online bank customers have had problems

so said a news story about six months back.

the problem.. i forget the exact nature, but i think it actually said identity theft, and called it a major scandal.

so many major scandals these days cant keep them all remembered.

seems to me best thing is to keep most of dough in a

NON LIQUID FORM,
or close to that.

Like land. ONe pundit said "land in Italy".. which is a puzzle to me, but i do see a point in staying "illiquid" as they say, aka non liquid.

i suppose CD"S are a good middle ground on the spectrum that goes from checking to Land in Italy.

[oldtime dfl_er]

3. Yup

I got one of those from South Trust. I get phished all the time so knew it was a fraud. It's always good to remind people, though, so thanks!

http://www.cafepress.com/scarebaby/665903

[undeterred]

5. I get those all the time and delete them all the time

If anything real is emailed I'll probably delete that too.

[Newsjock]

6. Got a couple of those emails right here

The language is so tortured as to be comical -- reminiscent of the infamous Nigerian 409 scam.

Dear client of the Charter One Bank,

Technical services of the Charter One Bank are carrying out a planned software upgrade. We earnestly ask you to visit the following link to start the procedure of confirmation of customers' data.

(link redacted)

We present our apologies and thank you for co-operating.

This instruction has been sent to all bank customers and is obligatory to follow.

I mean, come now, really! Also, the other dead giveaway is that, if you mouse over the link without clicking, your browser should show you the real address the link points to -- and it's not Charter One.

[ellenfl]

7. this is phishing and has been going on for quite a while.

NEVER answer any email that requests your personal info. delete it immediately. no reputable company uses this procedure.

ellen fl

[oscar111]

8. PHARMING DEFINE? and how to avoid?Diff fm Phishing

pls help
saw it vaguely described, but no way given to avoid it.

i think it referred to new con:

sites made to look like your banks' site, no way to tell it is fake.

you tap up your bank for routine stuff, they steal data you input.

right?

how avoid the trap?

[havocmom]

11. Avoid the trap by NEVER doing what an email says if it wants any personal

information! If your real bank had a question or a change in how they handle your account, they will send real mail via the USPS. If it is an emergency, they use the phone and you can call them back to verify before you give any info.

Do not EVER go to a site and give info unless you are the one who originated the transaction like an on-line purchase.

Call your bank and ask if they have any info they can send about some of the fraud techniques being used and how to avoid it. Most banks are VERY concerned that customers understand the frauds and understand how the real bank would contact them.

Think about it... when you opened your bank account, did they ask for your email address? Did you open accounts with all the alleged banks named in the bogus emails?

When in doubt, don't click a link, make a call to your bank instead. They are working to stop the phishing and need to know as much about as they can so they can fight it.

[izzybeans]

9. They send stuff through my work's list serve weekly.

[Orangepeel]

10. and if some guy in Nigeria wants to deposit money in your account

don't do that either

:-)

[ellenfl]

12. lol! i hope everyone knows about that one! eom

[Orangepeel]

20. they also didn't win the Canadian lottery!

:D

[China_cat]

13. SouthTrust Bank no longer exists

they've been merged into Wachovia.

NO bank or financial institution will ever ask you for account details by email. If you do online banking your bank may communicate with you by bank memo, but never by open email.

[left hand man]

14. I recently received one from "Paypal"

It looked PERFECT-- but the info they wanted was very in-depth-- it was titled "Dear Customer" which didn't quite sound correct, so I went to their site to update-- turns out it was phony(forwarded it to them) but was almost taken-- one hint-- if it starts out "dear customer" it is probably fake-- it's hard enough to make and keep money in todays market without some lowlife scheming to take it--or W's minions thinking up ways to waste it

[newyawker99]

22. Hi left hand man!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

15. And there are fraudulent e-mails being sent out under the name of

PayPal as well.

I received one such, and when I looked at the full header and did a "whois" on the server address listed, it came up not with PayPal, but the name of a phishy-sounding outfit in Florida.

No reputable bank, financial service, or anyone else will ask existing customers to send personal information by e-mail or through a click-through link to an insecure page.

You can tell a secure from an insecure page by the fact that a secure page has "https://" instead of just "http://" in its web address.

If you get such an e-mail from an entity that you do business with, look at the full headers of the e-mail, and do a search the IP address (the numbers separated by periods) of the originating server on

http://www.networksolutions.com/en_US/whois/index.jhtml

If it doesn't come back with the name of the outfit that supposedly sent the e-mail, you've received a message from a crook. PayPal directs you to forward all such e-mails to

[e-mail]

I did that last night, and I received a reply saying that the mail was indeed not one of theirs and that they would be investigating.

[OrlandoGator]

16. Rule of Thumb: Never answer e-mails asking you to "verify" your info.

n/t

[mcscajun]

17. Another rule of thumb...

...any e-mail comes asking for personal info, just go Directly to the site itself. Never, ever, Ever use the links in the e-mail. Ever. While you're at the Real Website for the business, look in the "Contact Us" or "Security Center" area for the Abuse or Spoof e-mail address.

Then, if you're bold and daring, you can open the e-mail and use the View Message Source function in your e-mail client to copy/paste the header info into the e-mail for when you forward the fraudulent e-mail to the Abuse or Spoof e-mail address of the legitimate business in question. They can use that header info to use in their investigations and possible prosecutions.

I have fun doing that. :)

[Mz Pip]

18. Forward it to

[e-mail]

THey try to track down these fraud artists.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[progressivebydesign]

19. Also there are new PayPal phising emails going out all over..

.. watch for anything from PayPal, if you have an account. I noticed when I received two emails from "paypal" that when I rolled over the URL it was not a paypal address. It was a fake (and they had typos).

[LizW]

21. I got one from SouthTrust a while back

Since I've never had an account with them I deleted it.

[MaineDem]

23. I keep getting them from Ebay too

Saying my account will expire. I have never had an account nor have I ever done any business with Ebay.

Yup, phishing. I just delete.

[Obamanaut]

24. Navy Federal Credit Union recently warned depositors

that phishing emails are being sent out using their name as well.