Citi Prepaid Services is a legitimate banking service. Recently some emails have been sent that look like they came from this service. Like most phishing attacks it contains an email that tries to scare you into clicking their link.
The link takes you to a web page that “looks like” Citi Prepaid Services, however it’s run by hackers and used to collect your login details (this is called phishing).
Below is the scam email:
Dear Ecount Citi Prepaid Services Member,
Due to concerns, for safety and integrity of the online banking community we have issues this warning message.
It has come to our attention that your account information needs to be updated due to inactive members, frauds and spoof reports. If you could take 5 – 10 minutes out of your online experience, and renew your records you will not run into future problems with the online service.
NOTE: THIS NOTIFICATION EXPIRES ON MAY 17, 2009.
Once you have updated your account records, your internet banking service will not be interrupted and will continue as normal.
Please click the link bellow and renew your account information
Scammers obviously have terrible English skills (though they’ve gotten better in the last couple of years). The email shown above has at least 2 grammatical errors and at least 1 spelling error. Maybe they should spend some of that stolen money to pay for better education.
Even if you’re not a customer of the service above, this serves as a reminder that scammers never give up sending out these phishing emails. Always be wary of emails that try to scare or shock you into clicking a link.
Instead of clicking on their link, open a new web browser and type in your bank’s web site. Trust your own memory (or better yet a bookmark) rather than an unsolicited email.
You can also use a good anti-virus package that scans web pages for scams such as this one. And modern web browsers such as Chrome can also filter out some scams as well, so keep upgrading your browsers.