Phishing Scam Takes Up BB&T Disguise

Scam e-mail is being sent to people in Southwest Virginia posing as a Bank Banking and Trust (BB&T) Company USA, message. The scam arrives in the inbox appearing like an authorized e-mail from BB&T. Wsis published this on April 10, 2007.

The fake e-mail warns the recipient to update his/her credit/debit card account within 48 hours failing which the account will be assumed fraudulent and therefore suspended.

Such e-mails and the websites they lead to appear real, but they are actually scams to grab users' info. According to security experts, if a user finds an e-mail content suspicious he/she should avoid pressing on any link. Rather the person should put a fraud alert on his/her credit card account.

The e-mail in question makes a fraudulent request to the recipient to confirm/update/verify his/her account details at the BB&T following the e-mail link and visiting the site it leads to. Obviously, the site is spoofed where the phishers wait to capture user's details. In practice, BB&T never e-mails to its customers asking for personal detail in this manner.

Security experts advise users to deploy comprehensive security package that protects against phishing. It is also important to update the solution to keep them going safe.

A BB&T bank spokesperson said the URL of the fraudulent website is disguised. Although it resembles the real BB&T URL but it is fake and tries to cheat people. The spokesperson said the institution would never ask for personal information via e-mail.

He explained that anyone receiving e-mail in the above format should understand that these scams very commonly distribute their messages at some extended date while making the content slightly different. They often have a different title or some other return address. They could even contain fake web page(s) being hosted on some other server.

The spurious website this message connects to would sometimes go offline. The website could either have been taken offline or its hosts deactivated it. But many times the phishers host such sites on their own computers, thus may come online frequently. Therefore, users must remain wary.

Related article: Phishing With A Redirector Code

» SPAMfighter News - 4/17/2007