Bank of America – Message ID NH-83521

Bank of America – Message ID NH-83521 showed up in my email.  I think this is a phishing scam, again. I want to show you how to prevent identity theft and financial fraud by not getting duped.  You must see these types of emails all the time. If this one is your first one, you should know that it is good enough to be a decent phishing scam.  It has too many errors though, and therefore, an intellectually average human being should be able to prevent the theft of their identity.  Following, is my precise critique and helpful advice that you should instill in your brain to stop identity theft, financial fraud, and scams in general.  So lets begin.

Firstly, notice the subject line.  It has a weird flow to it.

Message ID NH-83521

To me, it seems like an email that is generating some kind of malfunction code on a web server; it looks like a ticket number for one of the email lottery scams; simply, it just doesn’t convey the message.  Perhaps, by opening the email we will find out what is really going on.  But wait…

Notice that the email is of High importance and it is From: Bank Of America [boooaaaa@google.com].  If you read my previous Bank of America Email Scam and other posts you will see something is wrong here.  This email is from a Google server.  Since when does Bank of America email its customers with a Gmail address?  Since… Never.

Scrolling down to the next image you can see how identical everything is.  It has the Bank of America logo and an alert message: Online Banking Alert.  But don’t let nicely prepared graphics sway you, as any further action, like clicking links or replying to sender, can facilitate your financial demise.

Below is the actual text from the email:

Your Online Banking is Blocked

Because of unusually number of invalid login attempts on you account, we had to believe that, their might be some security problem on your account. So we have decided to put an extra verification process to ensure your identity and your account security. Please click on sign in to Online Banking to continue to the verification process and ensure your account security. It is all about your security. Thank you, and visit the customer service section.

I hope that after reading it you will just dump this email straight in your trash box.  Bank of America doesn’t have 2nd graders writing online banking alerts for them.  I usually go through the spelling, grammatical, and other writing errors, but what’s the point when there are words missing and “their” is a problem with more words missing.  The sentences feel like fragments and I really don’t want to click on the fraudulent link.

Notice that the link is a routing scheme to get you to a website that looks nearly identical to your Bank of America login page.  Don’t click on this link even if you know that this is an identity theft scam.  Sometimes you may end up on a site that has malicious code designed to infiltrate your system and open up back doors to steal more of your identity. Yes, more, more, and more…

While we are on links, notice that the image to the left of the text conveniently provides you with the sign in link.  Yes it is the same one… the fraudulent one!

If this looks familiar (minus the orange warning) you are seeing a great way people of even the highest intellect fall victim to identity thieves.

If you ever get emails that tell you to click somewhere, or at least implicitly, don’t click there.  Hover over it and see the link, but even then I wouldn’t recommend clicking.  One can still cloak, or hide, the link so a false page opens with a seemingly real page content. Or maybe, a false page opens because there is no link that can be seen when you hover over it.  The latter, is called dynamic linking, where you have the link but no real way to tell if it is a legitimate one.

The whole point is to go to your web browser’s address line and type the banking institution’s website address yourself  It is the safest way to login into your bank account.  If you log in, and there is no urgent messages, you know that you’re fine and you can surely discard that email.  You can always call your bank if you are really unsure.

Last but not least…

The copyright notice is current and serves as a credibility establish-er for the fraudulent email.  Beware!

I know you have learned a lot today. I am confident that if you ever see fraudulent emails like the Bank of America phishing scam you will promptly delete it and go on with your life.  All the best.