I just received what looked like an email from Bank of America (my bank), stating that because of numerous attempt to log onto my account, they were starting a new log on procedure (to insure my safety).

I clicked on the link, where I was asked to enter my account number and password. Microsoft Explorer saw this site as a Phishing attempt to gain information from me, while trying to make me believe that this was a real email from Bank of America.

First, Bank of America will NEVER ask you to enter your log in information anywhere but on there secure site.

Secondly, the english and grammar were terrible. This was the first thing that gave me a clue that something was Phishy (pun intented).

I am sure that if I had entered the requested information, later today I would have found my account empty.......

Windows Live Mail had put this email in my "junk" file. I was just curious as to why BofA would have sent me this email.....now I know that my software was smart enough to catch it. (Thanks Bill Gates)

So please be on the alert. What looks like a real email from any bank, probably is not, especially if they ask for your account log in, away from your normal log in screen.

Hope this heads up helps,

Clark

thats why i love firefox 3, it wont display pages that it believes are phising attempts. I've deliberately tried to go to some links before and it catches them all.

I get those e-mails from several different banks every week. Since I don't use a bank ( I use a credit union) I just delete them without opening. I used to forward them to the bank in question, but got tired of that after several months.

Some of the Paypal attempts look VERY convincing, including using their logo. Never login to Paypal from a link in an email. They'll never send you a link that way.

Never click on any financial links in an email is my rule.
In many email readers you can hold your mouse over the link and in the bottom left of the window the address where its Really going is usually displayed. What the link reads and where it really goes does not have to be the same. That was the hardest thing to get thru to my wifes head.

i basically just never click on links in my email. if i get an email from some place that *might* be real, i just go there by taking the time to type it out myself and log in.

I got one of those today too. I thought it was kind of funny seeing as I am a Canadian and we really don't have Bank of America up here Oh and the e-mail address is wrong too.

yea im double luckyy i have fire fox and a credit union.

and yet i still get the crap. lol. unless its from a site i go to all the time or from some one i know. it get the big ol' DELETE.......

everyday i get hundreds of spam and BS crap.....

I never click links to phishing e-mails of any sort for one simple reason. I've found that they try to upload trojans or something devious of the sort, just to get your info. That'* been my sole experience anyways. I never bothered to search for others with the same results as it'* just not worth my time.

I use MailWasher from firetrust. I get to see all links before I ever download the e-mail, and can see the phishing attempts pretty easily. Plus it never loads a graphic at all...one way these scammers try to determine if your e-mail address is valid. I've eliminated much of the spam I used to get in the past with this tool.