This is a dire warning! Take heed, because since I opened this blog, I have received several emails, proporting to come from MY bank. After the first few, I recognized them as scams, simply because I have no account with the bank in question, Co-operative Bank, UK. Never having been plagued by threats to my pennies before, I rang the bank and was told to forward immediately with the address ihaveseenascam@co-operativebank.co.uk. So I did, wondering why me, why now?
More jollifications followed when another little billet doux popped up, this time trying for another bank, who advised to forward to suspiciousemails@alliance-leicester.co.uk which I did. The hook in both these buggers lies in the "fact" that somebody is trying to steal your money. OH, yeah and we all know the senders are those very somebodies.
I await further developments, and messages from many more banks in which I allegedly deposit money (I have none!) who will be telling me my non-existent account is under threat from thieves. As this has just begun since blogging, I am wondering whether I am paranoid or merely involved in coincidence. Whatever the reasons, I thought it best to warn anybody who gets such nasty little tricks in their In Box to ignore all pleas to click on links and to find out where to forward them to. Be careful out there, and let's do it to them before they do it to us. (Courtesy of Hill Street Blues)
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I started getting those e-mails ten years ago, mostly "from" banks in the US that I'd never heard of.
ReplyDeleteI recommend not getting e-mail from your bank, ever. Don't even tell them your address. There is absolutely no reason why they should ever need to contact you that way; let them write or phone, like they've been doing for decades. Lord knows we pay them enough.
That way you know that any e-mail you get that purports to be from a bank is a fake, even without opening it.
Such emails, known as "phishing," or "pharming," are present in unimaginable numbers on the Internet. It is impossible to exaggerate how many will invade any existing email system on any given day.
ReplyDeleteI deal with a couple of banks online, one exclusively online (ING.com), and the way they communicate with me is that they will send me an email that says, in effect, go sign in to your account and look for a message over there, we want to tell you something. They have constructed several obstacles to the dirtbags of the 'net to keep them out.
Unfortunately all this security can be compromised by anyone foolish enough to reveal their username and password(s) and other information to one of the abovementioned sinners.
What I advise most people to do is ignore all such communication. If it's important enough, they will eventually telephone or send you a letter, or a summons to court...