Do Not Be A Victim Of Bank Phishing
Bank phishing has now become a global concern. Gone are the days when only major banks in the US were targeted by the bank phishers. Today this concern has spread even to globally operated online banks such as PayPal and Moneybookers. The people falling victims to online phishing scams are also alarmingly increasing. In the last year, two million people lost their money to bank phishing scams in some way or the other.
But the modus operandi of the phishers remains the same. They will send you an email that would contain the same template of the bank you have your account with; even the overall design and the logo would be present. They would try to attract your attention by telling that something is not quite right with your account such as, there are some technical difficulties, or that someone has asked for withdrawal from your account, or they would even deposit some money in your account. Once they have your attention, they will want you to take some action, for which you will have to visit the bank website. Then they would make you give some of your important identifying information such as your credit card number, your social security number, or your driving license number. You can very well understand how such information in the wrong hands can lead to big financial problems for you.
Banks themselves are taking lots of measures to prevent their customers from becoming victims of these online phishing scams. They have stopped asking people's profiles for verification through emails and dissuade people from giving out any such information to them. They also encourage people to physically call them when such emails arrive.
But bank account phishing is not going to stop by these simple measures. We need to wage a full-scale war against this menace before we lose our hard earned money to these online thugs. And this war can be fought only through mass education about bank phishing. Here are some steps that we must adopt in our campaign:-
- Be very cautious about the emails you get from banks. When you read the content, you must always be doubtful whether it is a genuine mail. Check the email id it has come from. Most bank ids will have the name of the bank in them, or at least have something to do with the bank. If you do not see that, do not respond to the email.
- Check the language of the email. Is the language ungrammatical, or are there spelling errors? If yes, then most probably it has not come from the bank. Banks have highly qualified human resources staff to send emails, and they write in perfect professional language.
- Is the email telling you to give your identifying information? If yes, then you must be on alert. Even if they are asking for the account number within the same bank, you must be wary. The best thing is to call the bank on their official number and check into the matter.
- If you come to know that the bank has not issued such an email, you must tell them of the id from where it has been received by you. Reporting in this manner will help the bank to take action against the issuer of the email and will go a long way in the war against phishing.
- Talk to all your acquaintances about these operating scams. The more people know about it, the better we will be able to fight against bank account phishing. Tell them of how these people operate so that they can be on their guard against potential bank phishing scams.
- Most of all, do not be overworked by emotions. Even if the email says that you have got a fat sum to your account, do not get carried away. You might lose much more than they are claiming you will get. Make all proper checks, and CALL UP THE BANK. That is most important.
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