Heya, I work at a bank and in the past few weeks have been dealing with an enormous scam... such a headache. This paticular one seems focused on the students at the university that the bank services, but the other thread on scams made me want to make a PSA:
1: Banks don't solicit information from you. Not through e-mail, not through the telephone. We have all the info about you that we need and it doesn't need "updating".
2: If you ever do want to contact your bank, either go to their webpage directly, or call the official 1-800 number (on the back of the card). Never call the number someone gives you (as mentioned in the other thread) or follow links through an e-mail.
3: It doesn't matter at all how "official" or "real" the email looks, or the call sounds. If it is asking you for information, it's not from your bank.
4. If an e-mail from your bank lands in your spam folder, there's probably a good reason. The only "real" emails you might ever get are ones that you requested (at least that's how it is at the bank I work for). For example if you have Online Banking and "paperless statements" then every month you'll get an email letting you know that your statement is available. But those are services that you enrolled in, KWIM? And the mail is purely informational, not soliciting.
5. There are certain kinds of information that you and ONLY you know. Even we (the associates at the bank) don't know them. So any time these bits of info are requested, it should set off MAJOR alarm bells. They include:
a) the PIN for your debit or credit card.
b) those secret random numbers on the BACK of the debit or credit card that let you shop online.
c) the password for your on-line banking.
1: Banks don't solicit information from you. Not through e-mail, not through the telephone. We have all the info about you that we need and it doesn't need "updating".
2: If you ever do want to contact your bank, either go to their webpage directly, or call the official 1-800 number (on the back of the card). Never call the number someone gives you (as mentioned in the other thread) or follow links through an e-mail.
3: It doesn't matter at all how "official" or "real" the email looks, or the call sounds. If it is asking you for information, it's not from your bank.
4. If an e-mail from your bank lands in your spam folder, there's probably a good reason. The only "real" emails you might ever get are ones that you requested (at least that's how it is at the bank I work for). For example if you have Online Banking and "paperless statements" then every month you'll get an email letting you know that your statement is available. But those are services that you enrolled in, KWIM? And the mail is purely informational, not soliciting.
5. There are certain kinds of information that you and ONLY you know. Even we (the associates at the bank) don't know them. So any time these bits of info are requested, it should set off MAJOR alarm bells. They include:
a) the PIN for your debit or credit card.
b) those secret random numbers on the BACK of the debit or credit card that let you shop online.
c) the password for your on-line banking.
