NEW BANK PHISHING E-MAIL SCAM

There is a new bank phishing E-mail scam that is making the rounds, and this one is harder to detect it is a scam. The one thing we do know is these criminals know how to change their tactics to keep up with the times.

The initial phishing E-mail tried to fool you into thinking that your account had been breached, there was a serious security issue, but would lead to your account being closed. They provided you a URL link to take care of this problem immediately. Now that they realize that people are aware this was a scam and how to detect it, they have now switched gears and this bank phishing E-mail is harder to detect it is a scam. Here’s how it works:

You receive an E-mail from your bank telling you that they are conducting a customer survey. They have hired an independent third party company to receive and process the survey information so the bank can improve its customer service and product offerings. They provide you the URL for you to click to take the survey. They will give the name of this independent third party company, and it will be very close to a name you have heard of before, but just slightly different hoping you won’t notice the discrepancy in the name. For example we have all heard of J.D. Powers and Associates. They will use a name like J.P. Powers and Associates. Since the URL for the link will not be the link for the bank, which you have been taught how to check, you believe this is a valid URL to take the survey and you click on it.

Once you do, you will then be asked to give all of your account information so they can confirm you are a customer of the bank. While you are giving them all of your account information, they are already logged in to your online banking and cleaning out your checking and savings account balances, personal information, credit card balances, etc., changing your online banking password and E-mail address so you won’t know your account has been hacked. Not until you try to log in to your online banking will you realize you cannot log in there is a problem, or you get a call from the bank telling you that your account is overdrawn, or there is some other issue with your account. Then you have to get a new password and reset all of your online banking information so only you have access to your account.

Now before you think you are home safe, be sure to do a sweep of your computer system to make sure they did not put a spyware program on your system so they can see your new account information. Otherwise they will just do it all over again, and this time they did not have to send you a fake E-mail to get inside your account.