bank account information 16 by Publication Critique
Published Date: 10/05/07
You definitely have to be careful who you give your bank account information especially if you make online transactions. Anyone who has email may know about phishing that some corrupt individuals use to get personal information from unsuspecting people. The individuals who use this practice often contact the person in the guise of someone else.
My sister received an alarming email that stated that someone tried to make an unauthorized transaction through her Pay Pal account. The email requested that she verify her bank account information to help them clear things up. She followed the instructions but she soon found that she had made an awful mistake.
About a week after responding to the email my sister received a phone call from her bank. Fortunately, she is very familiar with the ladies who work in the institution. One of the workers noticed that someone was trying to purchase airline tickets on my sisters account. The employee also knew that my sister was not going anywhere and the purchase would have left the account dangerously low.
At first, my sister did not make the connection with giving her bank account information to the dummy email. The employees at the financial institution asked her about any online transactions or any unusual incidents. This immediately reminded her about giving her bank account information through the email.
Pay Pal was diligent in its cooperation with the financial institution as well as working to find out who was behind the phishing email. The company notes that they never, ever ask you to give your bank account information through an email. You can forward any suspicious correspondence to spoof@paypal.com. The company is great at giving you a response about the questionable emails.
Since this incident occurred, I have had several emails asking for my bank account information. Some of these wind up in my junk mail folder but others land in my regular email page. I just forward them to Pay Pal and let the company handle the situation. I usually receive a message confirming that the correspondence was an attempt at phishing bank account information.
These phishng messages are very professionally done. They appear to be from Pay Pal and they are extremely well designed and well written. Hopefully, the company can find the individuals behind the scams. Until then, I just know to never give my bank account information to anyone and I know that Pay Pal wont ask for it in an email message.
>>Return to Home Page<<