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

Author Helene Blowers