Phishing
I received a phishing spam the other day that reminded me of the Bank of the Cascades scam that Jake first reported. The email claims to be from "Oregon Community Credit Union" and it says:
Oregon Community Credit Union temporarily suspended your account.
Reason: Billing failure.
We require you to complete an account update so we can unlock your account.
(etc.)
Granted, it’s not as crazy as the night-time phone call "from" BOTC but I think it’s a good opportunity to reiterate what BOTC says about fraudulent emails (and this applies in general to any suspicious-looking email):
We advise all customers to delete any emails that ask you for any personal financial information including card numbers, Internet Banking ID, PINS or to go to a link or web site. Only use phone numbers on your statement, our web site or as published in the phone book. These “phishing” scams are initiated by people from all over the world who have no access to our customer data.
And… it’s not a bad idea to forward the email to "info@botc.com" so that the can track down the server and get it shut down. That is what their customer service department asked me to do, anyways…
How was the tree lighting?
I’ve pretty much seen them for most of the local banks and now the credit unions are getting pegged, too. All it takes is one person to fall for this to make it worthwhile for these guys.