Today’s Scam of the day is yet another phishing email that uses a popular bank as a hook to lure you into clicking on a link that will either download malware or convince you to provide personal information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft. Phishing emails like this are nothing new.  They are a staple of identity thieves and scammers and with good reason because they work.  As always, they lure you by making it appear that there is an emergency that requires your immediate attention or else dire consequences will occur.

Copied below is a new phishing email  presently being sent to unsuspecting people that appears to come from Regions Bank which is a bank with 1,500 branches in the South and Midwest.  This particular one comes with a Regions logo, but was sent from an email account that had no relation to Regions which is a clear indication that this is a scam.  Most likely the email address from which it was sent was from an email account of an innocent person whose email accounts was hacked and made a part of a botnet used to send out phishing emails.  I have disarmed the link in the email to “Contact Us.”  If you had hovered your mouse over the link when it was active you would have seen that the link was from an address unrelated to Regions.

Legitimate emails from your bank would include the last four digits of your account and include your name.  This email had neither.   Obviously, if you are not a Regions customer, you will recognize immediately that this is a scam.  It is also interesting to note the spelling error at the end of the email where the word “Department” is spelled incorrectly.

Here is a copy of the email presently circulating.

Regions Account Alerts Our account security specialists have noticed unusual activity on your account, Someone was trying to access your account earlier.We have taken the right security steps to ensure your safety, Your account is locked till you identify your account information for your safety. Click Here To Identify Your Information We appreciate your business and thank you for banking with Regions Bank. Sincerely, The Regions Bank Security Departmenr Team Privacy and Security: The privacy and security of your information is a top priority at Regions. For an explanation of how we manage your information, please visit the Regions Bank website to read our Privacy Pledge. Regions Bank 1900 5th Avenue North, Birmingham, AL 35203 ©2022 Regions Bank  |  Member FDIC  |  Equal Housing Lender Regions and the Regions logo are registered trademarks of Regions Bank. The LifeGreen color is a trademark of Regions Bank.

TIPS

As with all phishing emails, two things can happen if you click on the links provided.  Either you will be sent to a legitimate looking, but phony webpage where you will be prompted to provide personal information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft or, even worse, merely by clicking on the link, you will download keystroke logging malware that will steal all of your personal information from your computer and use it to make you a victim of identity theft.

If you receive an email like this and think it may possibly be legitimate, merely call your bank or other institution from which the email purports to originate at a telephone number that you know is accurate and you will be able to confirm that it is a scam.

For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.”  Scamicide was cited by the New York Times as one of three top sources for information about Coronavirus related scams.

If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive free daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is to go to the bottom of the initial page of http://www.scamicide.com and insert your email address where it states “Sign up for this blog.”