Phishing Scam

Not Hobby related but it is related for all of us who have bank accounts.

Yesterday I received an email from Wells Fargo saying there was "Suspicious Online account activity and I needed to log in to my account to remedy the matter. The email looked just like the one I had received in 2013 except that email stated someone had tried accessing my accounts and online activity and WF froze my accounts until I could call. Plus this time it came to an email addy I do not use for WF.

This time it gave the link to the WF website. When I clicked the link it took me to the WF website but before I entered my log in and password I looked at the hyperlink bar at the top of the page and it showed shoeskingonline.com

WTF? I used another tablet to go to the WF website. These guys are good and duplicated everything perfect. I called WF to inquire and ask. They said it was a phishing scam and that web address has been used before. If they had an issue, WF would have frozen my accts like last time until I could call. They gave me an email to send the info about this particular email and web site.

Luckily I looked up to see the web link wasn't WF but this other web site that could have been bad.

Just an FYI to be careful with phishing scams.

This is becoming more common. It is not hard to copy and use the code for the layout of a website. Wells Fargo is not the first bank to have had this done.... I am sure it happens with most all the banks as well as other things like amazon.com, yahoo accounts, gmail accounts, etc... You have to be diligent and not use the link from the email.

Happened to me with chase , I got suspicious and called ,a lot of people fall for it.

I have gotten one or two of these also. It claims to be from Chase Bank and says my account has been frozen due to irregularity, and I must follow the link and login to clear up the problem. It looks very real, with what appears to be the bank's official logo. The cardinal rule is never to follow a link in an unexpected email. If in doubt, go to the bank's web site via your own navigation to check.

Edit: If I recall correctly, I may have gotten a similar scam regarding a credit card. The same rule applies: never follow a link in an email of suspicious origin.

I got the email from Wells Fargo, but it was a little different.. it said they were freezing my account until I confirmed a $10,000 transfer to Nigeria.. I called them up, pissed, and told them the transfer was authorized, and I would in turn be receiving $200,000 back to deposit!

I kid.. good information, one can never be too careful regarding email links.