Bank of America Email saying payent due

hjflit

I have just received an Email saying the statement balance is $1590.41. Says it is scheduled to paid auomatically on 16 3 07. It doesnt have my name on it. Is ths a mistake or a scam? Should I be worried? Can anyone help. Thanks

ManAtHome

Highly likely to be a scam, do they ask you to click on a link to confirm or dispute the transaction? DON'T CLICK ANY LINKS by the way.

goonieman

Use a bit of common sense here. Have you a account with the BOA? Have you ever given any details to the BOA. Probably not, delete and move along!

hjflit

Thanks manathome. Yes there is a link to view the account. Havent clicked on this but am interested in how that would help them. I'm new to computers so am still learning.

seaweasel

As goonieman says, since you don't have a Bank of America account, it's obviously a scam. Even ligitimate emails from you own bank wouldn't ask you to click a link. If someone came round to your house and asked for your PIN number, would you give them it? No. Banking and using services on the web is no different from in the offline world, all that is required to avoid being scammed is a bit of common sense.

ManAtHome

Would normally be something like enter your credit card, bank etc details, mothers maiden name, date of birth etc if you want to dispute the charge.

These are known as "phishing" emails (eg fishing for information) - most of them are allegedly from your own bank (Barclays, HSBC, Nationwide are quite popular along with several US banks you've never heard of) and ask you "log in" to verify your details as they've just updated security or have detected suspicious activity on your account. Basically just trying to get information so they can get into your account or make applications for credit in your name.

darwin-rover

If you have Internet Explorer 7 (and if you havent you should have upgraded by now) the anti-phishing filter will block any fake web-sites anyhow - hopefully

trisontana

The new Firefox 2.0 also has an anti-phishing filter. Just for good measure I have also downloaded the Netcraft tool bar. This gives a risk rating to every website and warns you if it thinks you are going to a phishing site.

gaming_guy

also, i think the latest version of opera has an anti-phishing filter as well

Brainhertz

hjflit wrote:

Thanks manathome. Yes there is a link to view the account. Havent clicked on this but am interested in how that would help them. I'm new to computers so am still learning.

When you click on the link it will either take you to a web page which asks you to enter all your details - ie all the information needed by criminals to access YOUR account ...

...or automatically downloads spyware which will scan your computer for details of bank accounts and then send them, without your knowledge, to the scammers.

The advice of 'delete and forget' is spot on.

Brainhertz