Still Phishing

Haven't seen one of these in quite a while. Normally I wouldn't pay any attention to it but I just bought a new car and financed it through Wachovia. Of course I was suspicious of this email and know better than to fall for something like this but you can never be too careful. I thought it might be interesting to point out some things that tipped me off. Here is the original email:



Of course it sounds very "official" and even cites "Federal Law." Although it is better written than many phishing emails that I've seen, the link itself (obviously "fake") as well as a typo "you account profile" make this email very suspicious. Notice that they ask for your PIN as well as one or more card numbers! To my knowledge, no bank or business will ever ask for this information. When in doubt, you can always contact your bank directly. Just for fun, I decided to click on the link anyway to see where it went... Of course! To a page where you are asked to enter all sorts of personal information, including your account numbers! I brought up the "property" settings of the page and as you can see, the "real" URL has absolutely nothing to do with Wachovia bank!



Curious as to what "www.htech21.com" led to, I entered that address into my browser:



Very interesting... not exactly Wachovia's web site! The lesson here is to always be on guard. If I had been tired, or preoccupied, or maybe late with a car payment and worried about my credit, it's possible I might have fallen prey to a scam like this. It can happen to anyone.

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