Beware of Scammers
Email scammers have become sophisticated in taking your money. Here are two steps to guard against theft.
I am taking a break from my usual posts on the Gospel Library; instead, I have an important message to share about financial email scams.
Scammers are becoming more creative in stealing your money, and it's essential to exercise caution when receiving emails from financial institutions.
The email appears legit and can be hard to distinguish from an official one. The emails include an alarming message about your account that requires immediate attention. Following are two rules to help avoid becoming one of their prey.
First, consider any message from a financial institution as fraudulent until proven otherwise. Even if the message seems legitimate, calling and speaking to a live person is best rather than responding to the email.
Second, never respond by calling the number provided in the email.
If you receive an official-looking email that concerns you, call your financial institution using the phone number you have saved in your contacts or search for the phone number online. If you use the institution’s app on your phone, You can check it to see if any suspicious activities have occurred.
Before taking any of the above actions, check the sender's email address. Most of the time, fraudulent emails do not resemble official emails and can be easily spotted.
Email addresses contain two parts – the user name and the domain name. The domain name has two parts – the name of the server (the company’s name) and the Top-level Domain (TLD), for example, com, gov, edu.
Usually, the user name looks legit, for example, “helpdesk” or “service.department.” Scammers get pretty creative in this area.
However, the domain is another matter. The first part of the domain will have the name of the institution. Here the scammer will add or delete a character in hopes that a quick glance will not catch the missing or deleted character, so make sure the domain is spelled correctly.
Next, the scammer will change the TLD if the domain name is correct. Here is a list of available TLDs – .com, .net, .org, .io, .co, .ai, .co.uk, .ca, .dev, or .me.
Using the Bank of America as an example, here are two fraudulent email addresses.
boa.service.department@bankofmerica.com
helpdesk.fraud.unit@bankofamerica.io
Scammers often target senior citizens, so please educate your older family members on handling any messages received via email or text from their financial institution.
