Phishing scam

[Brengirl]

I recently took out an Amazon credit card ie Bank of America. I activated and changed by pin numbers. The following day I received an email reminded me that I had to activate said card. I was a little concerned so decided to think about it. It was a phishing scam and had I fallen for it by now by personal details would be on sale.

Be afraid be very afraid

[quark1]

Bren - I would have thought that so long as the company did not offer a link by which to activate - and any decent financial org WILL NOT - and that you simply went to the website/phone and did the necessary - you should be OK.

I'm guessing that this email is just confirming the actions you have performed.

The best way to get scammed is to FOLLOW a link from an email - if you hover above it you will more than likely find the website is located in Russia, E.Europe, Far East or somewhere in Africa - there is brisk business to be had by bad folks out there. I trust that no-one here is banking with some wacky off-shore bank etc?

Also if you get an email from anyone - even if you DO do business with them - NEVER EVER use any link provided - even if it 'looks' OK - enter the system the 'long' way and proceed in safety. Your own Bank/Cr Card/Ins provider will NEVER ask you to provide details of you p/word etc over the internet simply because they've had a 'systems failure'. And if it doesn't bear your name and simply says 'dear a/c holder' or the like - you know where it has to go - THE BIN!

Hope everything OK for you.

[Hilary B]

One more hint. If you get a phone call about 'your account with xyzbank', it is best to avoid saying "but I haven't got an account with xyzbank!", because I have heard that this method is sometimes used to get hold of names for creating dodgy accounts for illegal purposes. They won't be trying to scam YOU, but they may be breaking the law in your name, and should the police catch on, you may have difficulty provng it wasn't you!