The following email is a scam, it looks confusing and encourages readers to click on a link. And there are many links in this email, all pointing to a hacker’s virus infected site.
Below is the email, with personal details and all of the malicious links removed:
Dear …,
Thank you for scheduling your recent credit card payment online. Your ($USD) $117.00 payment will post to your credit card account (CREDIT CARD) on 08/06/2010.
Now that you’re making your payment online, are you aware of all the convenient ways you can manage your account online?
Just log on to www.chase.com/creditcards today. Using the "I’d like to…" links for your credit card account, you can access more than a dozen features, including links to:
See statements – Choose to stop receiving paper statements, and see up to six years of your statements online.
See automatic payments – Set up monthly payments to be made automatically.
Transfer a balance – Transfer a balance to your credit card account.
Go to Personalized Alerts – Schedule Alerts to remind you of key account activity.
You can also see past payments you’ve made online by logging on to www.chase.com/creditcards and clicking "See/cancel payments" under "I’d like to …"If you have questions, please call the Customer Service number on the back of your credit card.
Thanks again for using online payments.
Sincerely,
Cardmember Services
Never trust emails like this, especially if you don’t have an account with the company.
A useful trick to spot these scams is:
- Identify which company the email claims to be from. In this case, it’s a company called Chase.
- Place your mouse pointer over a link, but don’t click.
- Look at the bottom of your screen, you should see the real link it points to. (You need to be using a modern web browser for this to work).
- If the addresses don’t match then it’s likely a scam.
E.g., the email above talks a lot about chase.com. This is a real company in USA. When I place my mouse pointer over the link, my browser says it goes somewhere different. The addresses don’t match, this is a scam. See the picture on the right.