Last night I got an email from Free, asking me to update my new bank card details. I have just received three new credit and bank cards, so it seemed palusible.
But having done it, I noticed that the website was not Free, and that the email did not address me personally so I immediately called my bank to cancel the card.
Good thing too as it was a fraud. My bank manager groaned and says that there is a lot of it about at the moment. Just wanted to give you all the head’s up out there.
Never give out your bank card details over the internet!!!
One thing worth considering is creating multiple e-mail addresses. I know it sounds complicated but I have one that is only used with Pay-Pal and for nothing else, and one for each of our bank accounts. etc.
One e-mail address (the one I'm registered on this forum with) is used for purchases, forum registrations etc. and yet another for work. Once they're set up in your mail programme they're all checked simultaneously and you only have to ensure you're sending from the right one.
All the scams seem to come in on this address and I know they're scams because they're not using the right address for whoever they purport to be. I haven't yet received any attempted scam using any of the addresses dedicated to bank/paypal use.
Even so, I agree... never click a link in an e-mail and do check the real source of an e-mail.
Good thread, it's very easy to be caught out and reminders of the risk are always worthwhile.
I've been getting loads of spam lately, supposedly from PayPal, but always with strange punctuation &/or typos in the subject line. I hover my cursor over the sender's name, & it's never from PayPal. I never open the emails & delete immediately. When in doubt, I'd log into PayPal directly, & not via the email, which I never open anyway. Some people must fall for these scams, or they wouldn't continue. Sad to say, but we must always be vigilant.
You do not have to click. As Simon says NEVER click a link in an email - even right clicking is a no no. Best thing to do is just hover over the link and check the very bottom of your browser on the left hand side and the real link will be shown there.
Also if you need to, check who exactly the email is from. For instance if using gmail it may usually say SURVIVE FRANCE NETWORK and then 'to me' click on the little arrow to the right of 'to me' and it should give you full info on the sending address, the reply to address etc. If you are using a mail client, Google 'how to reveal mail headers' and that will tell you the same info plus what server in came from (though that might be getting a bit techie for most people).
I recently had a couple of emails from 2 of the major French banks about the card I used for purchases online apparently using the 3 or 4 fois paiements!!! First of all, I had not and secondly at the very bottom of the emails in French was a full data protection and privacy disclaimer IN ENGLISH! And with some errors in it at that. The emails themselves were very convincing though and did make me think as I had bought a large purchase last year in that way but the payments were finished but it still made me think.
The important thing about a good "scam" is that it doesn't appear to be one. I have been the victim on two occasions - not bank card scams - because they appeared to be totally genuine! Indeed, one was a brilliant idea if it had been done honestly!
Don't berate yourself too much. Any of us is capable of being "taken in" - as your lawyer friend confirms!
The thing is that I KNOW this, but in a feeble moment did it anyway. And I am not the only one. I was berating myself to a lawyer friend later who said she had almost found herself caught up in a telephone scam recently.
NEVER click on a link in an email - type the web address yourself.
Yeah, I know. I can’t believe I let my guard down but I did. Got away with it this time.
One good way of checking out the link given is to click with the right mouse button on the link, go to 'copy link location' then paste into a Word (or similar) document. This will show you where the link will be taking you - normally not to where you expect!
The safest thing to do is to ignore the link and log into your providers account in the usual way - remember no-one should be asking for your pin or password from an email or link within an email.