Massive phishing attempt - Bank of America

[draggar]

I've gotten SEVERAL emails claiming to be from Bank of America stating my account has been locked due to repeated failed login attempts.

DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINK IN THE EMAIL!!!
DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINK IN THE EMAIL!!!
DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINK IN THE EMAIL!!!
DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINK IN THE EMAIL!!!
DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINK IN THE EMAIL!!!

I cannot stress this enough!! It will direct you to a site that IS NOT BANK OF AMERICA.

I've already forwarded it to their fraud department.

The registrar is:
ICANN Registrar: GUANGZHOU MING YANG INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD
Created: 2009-09-04
Expires: 2010-09-04
Updated: 2009-09-04

I highly doubt the WhoIs information is accurate but it is a registrar based in China.

If you receive these emails, forward them to abuse@bankofamerica.com

[NorthernZel]

Good advice.

I don't know if the same applies in the US, but over here in Europe (all of Europe, methinks, but at least Northern Europe) this rule of thumb applies:

Banks do never, NEVER send e-mails when they want to alert you of something regarding your accounts. They may reply to a mail you sent, or alert you of some special offers that you would have to go down to the bank to apply for, but they would NEVER send you a mail where you have to activate something by clicking a link.

If you happen to get an unsolicited mail from someone who claims to be your bank, always call or visit your local branch to verify it, just in case.

[Aethian]

I get those too...except one problem, I don't have a Bank of America account.

[TruthHurts]

I hate those things. I closed down my Bank Of America account a nearly five years ago. And I still got an email telling me that something was "wrong" with my account. It's ridiculous.

[lupo pazzesco]

having been the recepient of a legitimate BoA alert (Found out my CC was stolen, which led to me discovering my apartment was robbed back in january), I now know what the phishing attempts look like. Laughable, really. Congratulations, you can C&P BoA pictures into an email. Aren't you special...

[Talon]

Thanks for the warning.

Hell I would be very cautious about clicking any link in the body of an email. Even if it seems legitimate, just manually enter the address for the company's main page and log in from there.

Lupo: I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss those phish emails. I did a school project on phishing last summer. I even opened a test account with paypal. Some of the phish emails I intercepted, and the phoney websites they linked to, were frighteningly accurate. Trust me, without foreknowledge I wouldn't have been able to tell the pages and emails were fake.

[tropicsgoddess]

The funniest thing was that co-worker/friend of mine got a phishing email similar to that and he doesn't even have a BOA account! (He posted up the email on facebook)

[Sonoma]

Thanks for the warning - I called my Mom to let her know, since she uses BofA.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

Yes, we always get a ton of phishing email at work... Whenever I have the time, I forward it to the bank/institution/PayPal for them to deal with.

[draggar]

Here is the screenshot:



The links will take you to a BankOfAmerica sub domain of upgrade00-server.com (very common - always make sure your banks name is correct and next to the .com when typing it in!!). Last time I checked their site was bankofamerica.com - not upgrade00-server.com. I haven't gone to the site but I'm sure it would quickly add in some sort of tracking SW.

Good advice.

I don't know if the same applies in the US, but over here in Europe (all of Europe, methinks, but at least Northern Europe) this rule of thumb applies:

Banks do never, NEVER send e-mails when they want to alert you of something regarding your accounts. They may reply to a mail you sent, or alert you of some special offers that you would have to go down to the bank to apply for, but they would NEVER send you a mail where you have to activate something by clicking a link.

If you happen to get an unsolicited mail from someone who claims to be your bank, always call or visit your local branch to verify it, just in case.

That is a great rule of thumb. I've never gotten any kind of email from BoA unless I requested it. If there is an issue, they'll call me on my phone.

I get those too...except one problem, I don't have a Bank of America account.

Thanks for the warning - I called my Mom to let her know, since she uses BofA.

You don't need to be a BoA customer - even non customers sometimes fall for this (especially today when Bank A today is Bank B tomorrow and Bank C next week.

[Ree]

I have received some that are supposed to be from my actual bank.

They have the logo and really look legitimate.

I'm lucky in that one of my best friends works for that bank, so I just forward it to her and ask for her opinion if it's really hard to figure out whether it's legitimate.

For the most part, I just use common sense.

My bank will usually call or send a letter if it's a security matter, and they wouldn't need me to go online and verify my banking information.

If they did email, they would probably address me by the name on file with them, and they would already have my banking information in the message, even if it's partially starred out for security reasons.

People just see that official looking bank stuff and forget to think.

[tropicsgoddess]

I have received some that are supposed to be from my actual bank.

They have the logo and really look legitimate.

I'm lucky in that one of my best friends works for that bank, so I just forward it to her and ask for her opinion if it's really hard to figure out whether it's legitimate.

I found a site called PhishTank.com where you can check for and/or report phishing links for free. I tend to get tons of calls at work from customers reporting that they received phishing emails that claimed to be from ISP that won't be named.

[AccountingDrone]

I get those too...except one problem, I don't have a Bank of America account.

+1

we have a credit union associated with the us navy ...

I just deleted a phish attempt from all 5 of my email accounts *sigh*