Be Careful of Suspicious Emails!
Author : teriannI think that I am a fairly intuitive person and I can easily identify when I am being tricked. So there are some emails that I automatically dismiss. These emails are from persons who I don’t know and they relate long and sad stories about how they need my financial support.
They often come from as far away as Nigeria and the stories range from the reasonable to the ridiculous. One of the more humorous ones that I have received state that the person wishes to give me an inheritance but I would first need o transfer a small amount to open an account.
It never fails to amuse me that the writers of these emails beg so unashamedly for the funds and usually they give a specific amount that they need. They won’t even leave it up to the generosity of the person as they make their demands.
Use of Friends
It’s one thing when the requests come from complete strangers however it’s quite another when you recognize the name of the recipient. Often this means that person’s email has been compromised as they have no knowledge of it.
This personal appeal usually sounds legitimate as they claim to be stranded in a foreign country without any means to survive. The scammer in the email gives fairly detailed description of what they have experienced and plays on the emotions as they ask for a small loan.
Legitimate looking scams
Recently another type of email has been making the rounds and it is more insidious than out-rightly asking for money. These emails appear to come from a financial institution as they have the letterhead and markings usually seen on legitimate documents.
The email asks you to verify your email address by clicking a link which then allows the scammers to access information. The link while innocent looking can lead to your online information being accessed by unscrupulous persons.
One financial institution that was affected by these email scams was (NBC) National Commercial Bank. A number of customers received fraudulent emails that looked as if they came from the company. The bank issued a statement to customers saying that the email did not originate with them and customers do not need to verify their email accounts in that manner.
We have to be ever vigilant as it may not always be easy to identify a scam!
So what’s your take? Let me hear from you!
Teri Ann Renee Paisley
Gleaner online writer
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2 Responses to “Be Careful of Suspicious Emails!”
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NCB is giving me cause for concerns. I got the email and decided to check it out. I went on their website and read FAQ. It mentioned that the bank doesn’t send link in emails. I called the bank’s customer service which I had to wait holding for 47 minutes (its a good thing that I used Skype to call). That first call actually lasted for 1hour 30 minutes with 47minutes of holding. I was told to make a new email address and go to the bank to get my Midas card changed. I was told they were restricting my account.
I went to bank. My Midas card was taken and cut up and a new one issued. I asked what to do after that and was told that I could go ahead and use the card because everything was ok.
I came home and later in the night decided to pay some bills and do a transfer. i put in my username and everything was going through like a breeze. When I was to put in password, I hesitated as I believed that I should have changed my password. I generated a new password and recognized that the new card was given with the old number and it was still tied to the old email address.
I called customer care again, another 45 minutes wait. I mentioned the issue and was told that I should wait 24 hours to use my account.I mentioned that I wanted to pay bills and do inter-branch transfer. I was informed that it would cost me. I pointed out that they have an issue at their institution wherein my account is restricted yet they are telling me to come in branch and pay for services which I usually get free. I pointed out that it was the said institution which encouraged electronic account which I had for more than 10 years, yet two weeks before I had to pay to replace a Midas card which snapped in 4 after having problem at one of its ABM. Its 72 hours since my account has been restricted. I called customer care earlier today and got a response after holding for 41 minutes. after 5 minutes of talking without finishing my questioning, I got disconnected. I tried calling back and is getting nowhere.
NCB needs to fix their problem and be more accommodating to customers.
When I went to the bank about my issue there were a number of persons with similar problems.
The bank definitely has a problem on its hands.
I have been with the bank since 1984 but its time for me to leave!
I got what you mean,bookmarked, very nice internet site.