Today’s Scam of the day is a phishing email that appears to come from Citizens Bank. It makes for compelling reading, but it is a scam. Phishing emails, by which scammers and identity thieves attempt to lure you into either clicking on links contained within the email which will download malware or providing personal information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft, 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 the email which contains a Citizens Bank logo, but was sent from an email account that had no relation to Citizens Bank 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. 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 Citizens Bank.
Here is a copy of the email presently being circulated.
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Dеаr Custοmеr,
Plеаsе аttеnd tο οur nοticе tο prοtеct yοur аccοunt.
Yοur аccοunt is undеr rеviеw аnd rеstrictеd by οur systеm duе tο missing infοrmаtiοn.
Wе prοtеct yοur аccοunt with οur high еnd еncryptiοn systеm аnd nοw rеquirе thаt yοu vеrify yοur аccοunt infοrmаtiοn. |
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Download the Citizens Mobile® App
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Images are for illustrative purposes only.
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Citizens is not responsible for products and services offered by other companies. |
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Our mailing address:
Citizens, N.A. Customer Service, P. O. Box 790046 St. Louis, MO 63179-0046 |
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© 2022 Citizens Corporation. All rights reserved. |
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© 2022 Citizens, N.A. |
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TIPS
Legitimate emails from your bank would include the last four digits of your account and include your name. This email merely indicated “Dear Customer.” This email had neither. Obviously, if you are not a Citizens Bank customer, you will recognize immediately that this is a scam.
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 input 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.
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